Letters Page

Published:

Plan to raise Union Terrace Gardens

SIR, – Diane Morgan (Letters, November 15) seems to forget that the “city's heritage" which she seeks to protect must itself, when built, have wiped out whatever heritage preceded it.

Much of what we treasure in Aberdeen city centre was created in Victorian and Edwardian times, when leaders of industry and commerce had the vision and commitment to improve Aberdeen's heritage, not just fossilise it.

It is exciting that Sir Ian Wood is resurrecting that tradition.

Union Terrace Gardens could, and should, be radically improved. Raising them would increase their useable area, make them more accessible, and let in sunlight. However, they should not be raised to Union Street level, but slightly lower, with shallow ramps for easy access, to retain the magnificent views across the gardens.

Creating the gardens may have been a “pivotal moment of our past", as Diane Morgan suggests. Raising them could be an even more pivotal moment for Aberdeen's future.

Douglas L. Stewart,

Benview,

Culter, Aberdeen.

Providing a welcome retreat

SIR – I refer to J. Murray’s letter (the Press and Journal, November 13) headed “Plan for Union Terrace Gardens”.

The gardens provide a welcome retreat, day and evening, winter and summer. As for lack of security, I am not aware of any danger to myself or anyone else when I walk through Union Terrace Gardens.

I am in agreement with J. Murray’s suggestion that Peacock Visual Arts find another site. I have a plan for the gardens. Leave them alone.

J. Rattray,

Spa Street, Aberdeen.

Decline of farmland birds

SIR, – Your piece (November 1) headed “Decline in farmland bird numbers” sparked some passionate responses.

It was suggested that predation and even the agri-environment schemes aimed at improving farmland for wildlife were the root causes of farmland bird declines.

Most farmland birds that are giving cause for concern started to decline in the 1970s – way before agri-environment schemes had been dreamed up.

Years of research since has shown that the primary driver of population declines and range contractions has been the changes in agricultural practices.

More-recent evidence has shown that many of the measures in agri-environment schemes – keenly supported by the majority of farmers – can improve things for wild birds.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) developed measures, adopted by the schemes, that provide summer and winter food for birds and abundant nest sites.

The role of predation is more controversial. Birds of prey have, so far, not been found to impact on farmland bird numbers. However, there is evidence that many common predators like foxes, stoats and crows do affect birds.

This is a complicated subject that is still far from resolved, involving many causal factors.

Dr Dave Parish,

Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust,

Couston,

Newtyle, Perthshire.

Criticism of social services

SIR, – As a former social worker, I wish to express my contempt for the suggestion that criticism of Haringey social services is premature.

A Channel 4 TV reporter isolated the Serious Case Review report on Baby P which the host council had put in train to ascertain if a review of the service was required. While it was allocated to an “expert and independent childcare agency”, the report was compiled during meetings chaired by Sharon Shoesmith – head of Haringey childcare services.

Worse was to come. The report made mention of Baby P’s propensity to head-butt people, and that he was “lively” and “active” – clear euphemisms for him exhibiting problematic behaviour.

The suspicion must be that the ensuing abuse was seen by the report as, at least in part, a response to Baby P being a difficult child; that Baby P had, to a certain extent, brought the abuse upon himself.

The foregoing being the case, there exists no defence for Haringey child services, nor, indeed, for any of the others involved in the report. The ignorance and ineptitude involved, as well as perhaps the issue of blame avoidance, is simply off the Richter scale.

Blaming Baby P for his own injuries is about as perverse as it gets. When such perversity and cynicism originates from social work/care services, there can be only one reply – a blizzard of P45s.

Archie Beaton,

Mackintosh Road,

Inverness.

Golf courses and the environment

SIR, – The claim (Letters, November 12) by Mark Sinclair that Newburgh Golf Course is environmentally friendly to bird life is either arrogance or ignorance.

The only two breeding areas anywhere near the course are the Teuchat's Howe at the back of the new clubhouse, from which the lapwing have long departed, and the area around the original nine-hole course, where the song of the once almost omnipresent skylarks used to make walking from the village to the beach a delight. These, too, have all but disappeared.

It would be unfair to blame the golf course for either, except that the links as at present, waist-high gorse with tunnels of close-cut fairway and machine-cut borders, offer nothing in the way of food or protection to the skylark.

The birds Mr Sinclair quoted as breeding or migrant visitors are birds of the estuary. The golf course has absolutely nothing to do with that. The reason that the eider and terns breed fairly successfully at Forvie is because they have been protected from human interference in earlier years as a keepered shooting estate and latterly as a nature reserve and, of course, access from the Newburgh side is restricted by the very dangerous River Ythan.

The birds breed successfully only because no one has driven a golf course through their nesting areas.

David T. Keith,

Blackpotts Cottages,

Whitehills.

Enjoying pictures of bygone days

SIR, – How lovely to enjoy pictures of bygone days. I am fortunate in receiving backdated copies of the Press and Journal and cut out and send pictures from Past Times and Scottish Life to friends in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Coventry and Bridlington.

Thank you to all who work in the process of selecting the pictures and the Press and Journal for publishing them.

In Past Times, people look much more pleasant and happy. Oh, for the good old days.

Elizabeth Wilson,

Haughs,

Corse, Huntly.