Regarding the article about Aberdeen City Council refusing permission to revive the marquee outside No 10 (Evening Express, June 18).
It has been quite some time since I last agreed with any decisions from Aberdeen City Council.
But in my opinion I feel they are right in rejecting plans for a marquee for No 10 bar and restaurant.
Many tents sprang up during the pandemic and I could understand the reasons why – they allowed people to work, trade and socialise – but they were in my opinion “a blight on the landscape”, a necessary evil.
But there are no real reasons to resurrect these awful looking tents now, so I for one agree with the decision to refuse permission.
M Jeanette Craig.
Community frustrated and in limbo over Whalsay Tunnel plan
Sir, – We are now into our third decade of transport consultations and, following three offers to build a Whalsay Tunnel, we appear to be no further ahead in a progression to fixed links than we were two decades ago.
The option of a tunnel to Whalsay appears again to receive little mention in the latest transport consultation – as SIC officials apparently continue to pursue their own agendas and ambitions, regarding the replacement of ferries and terminals as our transport links.
Alternatively, many of our island residents have continued to request over the past two decades that more financially and eco-friendly fixed links are built instead of renewing the ferry services.
During the past decade, the Whalsay community organised a tunnel poll that showed a resounding majority were in favour of a fixed link. Members of our community also sourced three offers plus funding, to build a tunnel to link our island to the Shetland mainland.
However, all were dismissed by the SIC and the Scottish Government, after they followed advice in reports containing what appears to have been flawed figures and calculations.
The tunnelling firm behind the Whalsay Tunnel offers, Tunnel and Geoconsult, headed by Per Arne Moen, presented their most recent quote of £76 million for the construction of a tunnel in 2016/17, which compared favourably against the imagined construction cost figures for new ferries and terminals, presented by SIC officials.
Perhaps the time has now come for the SIC to contact Mr Moen again, to request a revised Whalsay Tunnel quote and a new timeline for its construction.
What more does our community have to do to show that our support for a fixed link is community driven?
William Polson. North Park, Whalsay.
Good news but still work to be done
Sir, – I was delighted to read (Press & Journal Wednesday June 15) that the revamp of Aberdeen Station is close to completion – at last!
We do, however, need also to consider that neglected matter that no one talks about – Aberdeen Station is appallingly inaccessible and user-unfriendly for private coach passengers.
It’s bad enough when coaches operate rail replacement services, but much, much worse when passengers are transferred by coach from or to the station to join or finish a luxury holiday experience.
In recent weeks, as a qualified local “Blue Badge” tourist guide, I have accompanied groups of people who have disembarked from their small, upmarket, cruise ships at Aberdeen North Harbour. I have also met people at the station who have arrived to join their ship.
These short journeys are not for the faint hearted, the unfit or indeed people with restricted mobility.
In either direction, this is an endurance test which requires individuals, with luggage, to negotiate two self-closing doors, one unexpected step, a ramp (why a step and ramp almost adjacent?), a long level-but-winding corridor, and either a flight of stairs or one tiny lift.
This is not only an embarrassment, it is the first impression these people have of Aberdeen – and first impressions matter so much. Whether they’ve just finished a lovely cruise, or have just arrived in the city to join their cruise, this is the reality they face. One recent visitor commented that he hadn’t expected a team-building exercise on arrival!
Please, it is time to admit mistakes were made in the past in the design of the station, College Street car park, Union Square and the bus station (which tour coaches cannot use). We need to move on, talk about this huge elephant in the room – or on the platform – and create an acceptable solution before larger cruise vessels start using the South Harbour, where inevitably they will also require passenger change-over.
Elma McMenemy. Carmona, Barras.
Sturgeon could sing for Scotland
Sir, – As Allan Sutherland suggested yesterday, if the SNP/Greens want the Eurovision Song Contest to come to Scotland they should insist on a separate Scottish entry.
So my suggestion would be that they also insist that Nicola should present her song to put Scotland on the World Stage:
I’ve bin lookin for Indypendence
For an afa lang time
I hope tae get it afa seen
Maebe in twinty twinty three?
And win this competition!
Sandy Neish. Cobbans Lane, Inverurie.
Talk in media fuels price increases
Sir, – Does the media – TV in particular – not realise that if they say prices are to rise, then they will rise, as this gives retailers and all in their supply chain an excuse to do just that – raise prices.
The present cost of fuel is entirely due to media conjecture come true . . . as if by magic!
Malcolm Parkin. Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood.
Observations spoiled by insults
Sir, – While agreeing with the substance of Chris Deerin’s piece in P&J June 21 on the failure of the SNP leadership in Westminster to fully acknowledge the gravity of the Patrick Grady affair and “that ethics matter only to the point they cause you or our party any difficulty”, for me his observations were spoiled by insults highlighting Ian Blackford as a man of ample proportion, needless additions to an otherwise excellent article that have no bearing on a politician’s ability or in this instance liability.
Journalism may be “a trade for low-born rascals”, but would any dare to use the same insulting rhetoric if the SNP leader had been a woman of substantial girth, in fact “a baked potato in a flowery dress”.
Even Shakespeare reserved his prime insults for men, the quoted “this huge hill of flesh” was of course the portly figure of Falstaff.
Gratuitous insults force a reply to the columnist with another quote from the Bard “more of your conversation would infect my brain”.
Ivan W Reid. Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
More than a little disappointed
Sir, – I was more than a little disappointed that you failed to publish my riposte to the absolute nonsense aspersions of Willie Dunbar (P&J June 10) on Winston Churchill.
Prof Hugh Pennington (P&J June 15) rightly pointed out to Mr Dunbar that Winston was absolutely NOT involved in “gifting the World concentration camps” as he was a young war correspondent who in fact was a successful escapee from a Boer prison.
But Prof Pennington failed to fully correct Mr Dunbar on the topic of the 1943 Bengal Famine, which was primarily caused by the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 – not dissimilar to the current situation whereby Africa and other remote nations are suffering from the grain shortages resulting from Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine!
Winston Churchill in fact sent five freighters of grain to Bengal to provide relief, but this was – as often happens in war time – appropriated by dock officials and stockpiled by the upper Indian castes to the detriment and starvation of lower castes – a caste system perhaps less discriminatory than in the 1940s, but which still persists to this day!
William Morgan. Midstocket, Aberdeen.
Perfect candidate for investment
Sir, – Driving past Woolmanhill hospital today I wondered whether the UK Government might like to reconsider their inhumane policy of sending refugees to Rwanda at enormous cost and – instead – use the money to restore buildings across the UK to house these desperate souls.
Woolmanhill would be a perfect candidate for investment in my view.
There must be many other candidates.
The UK is apparently short of one million workers, yet we turn people away.
Priti Patel is the key motivator behind this appalling policy, yet she herself was a refugee from Idi Amin’s Uganda.
Such hypocrisy!
Ken Vettese. Albert Terrace, Aberdeen.
Give us back Union Street.
Union Street must be open to all traffic, if we want to survive
Even I know that and I don’t drive
Taxis are using the long way round
And taking up a lot of ground
The price of petrol is sky high
So taxi fares are up, that is why
And the drivers are getting a bad name
But they are definitely not to blame
So what are they supposed to do
We must let all the traffic go through
Our town centre is not the same
And Union Street being closed to traffic is to blame
There’s not much shops open there now
And people are shopping online anyhow
So come on council, give us a break
We need our town centre back for God’s sake
Union Street is just an eyesore
We need it back the way it was before
Aberdeen is beautiful, and it is easily seen
It would look much nicer if we kept it clean and green
Don’t throw down your rubbish, take it home with you
Then our bonny Aberdeen will always look brand new
Dot niven, Loch court, Aberdeen.
BBC sends wrong signal
BBC Scotland need to learn the difference between don’t and can’t. They tell us “don’t travel by rail if you can avoid it. If you live north of Glasgow and Edinburgh you can’t travel by train as there are no services”. That is not because the drivers are on strike, as they are not – it is the union of the signal staff preventing trains running north of the central belt.
Don McKay, Provost Hogg Court, Aberdeen.
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