Letters Page

Published:

Abuse of the law by off-licences

SIR, – Despite recent drives to control the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to children there is still ample evidence of the abuse of the law by off-licence premises.

This brings into question the effectiveness of the current Aberdeen city licensing board which seems to be failing in its duty to withdraw licences from offending off-licence shops and perhaps it is now time for the Scottish licensing laws to be changed and overall responsibility transferred to the police for proper law enforcement.

Dennis Grattan,

Mugiemoss Road,

Bucksburn,

Aberdeen.

Cost of land hard to appreciate

SIR, – Nichola Workman’s article on Tuesday “Tulloch spends £30million on land” is difficult to appreciate.

If we are to accept that Halifax Bank of Scotland has only invested £27.5million into Tulloch for a 40% shareholding, it would seem clear that all of this investment and more has been spent on land acquisition.

This land does not have planning permission for house-building at this time, so perhaps what is envisaged is that this sum of money, namely £30million, is to be paid over a number of years subject to the successful conclusion of planning permission.

If that is not the case it must be the most expensive land ever sold.

Michael Campbell,

Leanaig,

Conon Bridge,

Ross-shire.

Wrong facts about Hornby and Corgi

SIR, – Regarding the article on Friday on Hornby and Corgi the writer has some facts wrong.

Mettoy, a tin plate toy maker, launched Corgi 1956 to compete with Dinky, they gained success by having windows in their models which Dinky soon copied. Corgi never made train sets, however, Meccano under the name Hornby the early ones being the O gauge wind-up engines and then the thee rail electric models which were changed to two rails when Tri-ang trains (formerly Rovex) came out with the new system which soon put Meccano Hornby and Dinky out of business.

Tri-ang had a range of die cast cars under the name of Spot-on but they were never up to the standard of the other two.

Raymond Yellop,

Brown Place,

Wick,

Caithness.

We have to use democratic right

SIR, – In response to John Denning’s letter on Saturday, May 3, on first past the post I appreciate his comments. It is this very pessimism and apathy that I am talking about, however.

Poor councillors can be voted out. The Single Transferable Vote (STV) system has worked very successfully in Australia and Malta.

Whether it is first past the post or the STV, we have to use our democratic right to vote.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the Local Governance (Scotland) Act of 2004, introduced the Single Transferable Vote (STV) to the electorate.

Needless to say, in 2004, it was a Labour-controlled Scottish Executive that introduced the act, pressed by the Liberal Democrats. A saying comes to mind. “Shooting oneself in the foot”.

Patrick Murphy,

Rosebank Place,

Aberdeen.

Waste incinerator at Peterhead

SIR, – I note the proposal to build a waste incinerator at Peterhead (Monday, May 5) and would make the following points.

First, if built the incinerator will have to work at full capacity, which places a cap on the amount of waste that can be recycled or re-used, the better options for waste disposal.

Buchan CHP will undoubtedly demand a contract with the local authorities which will guarantee them the amount of waste needed to operate the incinerator at full capacity.

Second, if the incinerator takes waste from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, there will be a significant increase in heavy lorry movements to get waste to the plant.

On these grounds alone, this incinerator should not be built.

These arguments also applied to the now abandoned incinerator in Torry. Let us hope commonsense prevails.

Nick Williams,

Findon Place,

Portlethen.

Council trips ‘infuriating’

SIR, – I think Aberdeen City Council has an inflated idea of itself.

It is, or should also be, criminal for them to spend money on council trips, tripping around the world as if they deserved to.

How infuriating. Let us have all their names and titles, and political affiliations too.

Dorothy Martins-Walker,

Scalloway Park,

Fraserburgh.