Sir, – At long last, thanks to The P&J and Your Life (August 27), there are some positive articles about our police force – who are so often in the news when a bad apple in their barrel commits a misdemeanour, giving an entirely false impression of the thousands of decent officers who every day we depend on to uphold the rule of law.
Like with the heroes in Star Trek, every day in a police officer’s life is a journey into the unknown. Will today be the day we are called to deal with an armed desperado, or like the officer in Banchory the day we deal with a “villain” who “borrowed” a builder’s ladder to get her pet parrot down from a tree?
Dealing with the destitute, desperate, despicable, drugged or drunk, with on occasion all in one individual, is the officer’s daily diet. No other profession has to endure being kicked, punched and spat on by the dregs of society with so little means of retribution.
Gone are the days as in my youth when miscreants were treated with a well-aimed boot in the backside.
Bobbies on Rural Beat brings memories of when all our country areas had their police station, houses with a room where lawbreakers were held until they sobered up or moved to more secure accommodation elsewhere. Our bobby, never in one area, if my memory serves me, for more than seven years, was a man. They were all men in these bygone years, whom we youngsters both feared and respected, especially if, as happened to me on more than one occasion, we were caught cycling without lights on a winter’s evening guided by the light of the moon.
Excuses such as an ageing battery were ignored with the advice “ get your father to repair your lights laddie, then come to the station tomorrow and let me see them working.”
The bobby, like the doctor, teacher, minister and banker, was a stalwart of the community, a group that has sadly almost disappeared in the name of progress.
Thankfully my most memorable encounters with a bastion of the law were the father of a girlfriend of teenage years, who ended a budding romance by thinking my mouth was bigger than my prospects.
Modesty prevents me from giving a verdict on his judgment.
Ivan W. Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Wind farms a silver lining
Sir, – The news is currently dominated by huge energy price rises. But there’s one silver lining to this cloud.
The UK is on track to get most of its energy from the wind in years to come.
The UK’s so-called metered wind farms with an on-paper capacity of 19,932MW were left standing on Saturday, August 27 as the UK was becalmed, and the electricity generated by them collapsed to a paltry 241MW.
And over the previous month, similar failures had happened three times.
In the dystopian future, during such energy shortages, only “important” people like government departments will get electricity. But at least ordinary people will not be getting billed for electricity that’s not there.
Geoff Moore, Braeface Park, Alness.
Easier to mislead than to inform
Sir, – The article by Robbie Marsland of the League Against Cruel Sports (August 24) reminded me of a very relevant observation from Richard Course, an ex-chief executive of that very league.
Some years ago, he said: “Having spent 13 years of my life leading a professional campaign against hunting, I know full well just how easy it is to mislead people compared to the difficulties of informing them.”
Mr Marsland is clearly well aware of that point.
John Mackenzie, Conon Bridge, Dingwall.
Fuel crisis was avoidable
Sir, – We live in straitened times with utility prices about to rise to levels few can reasonably be expected to afford. Had there been sensible forward planning by the government, we would not be here.
The North Sea gave us an abundant source of both gas and oil, and we are surrounded by water. Gas storage was closed down, leaving us in a precarious position, and minimal investment was made in tidal or wave power generation.
It is ridiculous that imported LPG is being sent to mainland Europe for storage, in the hope that they will send it back according to our requirements.
The countries concerned will, naturally, put their own requirement first, so we must wait, with fingers crossed, to see if we regain supply when needed.
The two main Westminster parties should hang their heads in shame for their shortsightedness and lack of long-term planning.
Ron Campbell, Richmond Walk, Aberdeen.
Nicola just wants the limelight
Sir, – It is most encouraging to see the number of Covid cases declining over the summer.
This is quite an achievement considering we have not had a daily briefing from our first minister.
She has instead managed to squeeze in three “interviews” at the Edinburgh Fringe – although quite what they have done to enhance the Scottish Government escapes me.
Oh yes, she has also managed a two-day trip to Copenhagen to visit the Scottish “Nordic Embassy”.
Is this about government or self-promotion now she doesn’t have the Covid excuse to be on the telly every day?
Mike Salter, Glassel, Banchory.
Police must crack down on e-scooters
Sir – Clark Cross misses two important points in his letter “Taking a stand against e-scooters” (Press and Journal, August 26).
E-scooters are illegal in Scotland, and so all these motorised vehicles being used in public places in Scotland should be confiscated.
Why are Police Scotland not doing this and protecting the public?
Graham Tuley, Crown Drive, Inverness.
Turbines failing to bust fuel crisis
Sir, – On the very day the energy price cap rockets into the stratosphere, our deluded politicians continue to extort untold billions from our energy bills in green levies and throw it towards the wind industry.
The result? Twenty years and 11,000 turbines later, we watched the needle, at the national grid dial, start at 4% in the morning and drop steadily to a pathetic 1% by teatime.
Apart from industrialised landscapes and seascapes; bird, bat and insect slaughter; and extortionate energy bills, what exactly are we getting from these monstrosities? Energy crisis – you bet! Yours, like thousands of others, are now officially in fuel poverty.
George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Elgin.
SNP accountability on sewage needed
Sir, – Ron Campbell’s six-point list of things the Surfers against Sewage’s water quality report a year ago revealed showed that one site, at Portobello beach in Edinburgh, was worse than any which they tested south of the border.
The Helensburgh sewage treatment plant on the Clyde reportedly discharged over 1,200 times in 2020.
It is reported elsewhere that only around 10% of sewage overflows in Scotland are monitored compared with about 80% in England – so not surprisingly, they record more discharges.
If sewage discharges are monitored by the Environment Agency in England and Wales and Scottish Water in Scotland, each using different standards and criteria, then it is difficult to compare effectiveness and easy to pick out a statistic that supports an argument that one is better than the other.
The SNP has a history of doing things differently so as to avoid direct comparison with the rest of the UK.
Only when there is standardised reporting that allows direct comparisons of the SNP’s performance will we get true accountability and better government in Holyrood.
Mark Openshaw, Earlswells Road, Cults, Aberdeen.
Protect our heritage
Sir, – Aberdeen City Council continues to destroy the city’s heritage.
Many buildings that have been demolished should still be standing – the original Aberdeen market, St Nicholas Street-George Street thoroughfare and the Loch Street Co-op arcade.
Now the King George VI Bridge is the latest victim. Opened in 1941 and B-listed, the council is looking to cut repair bills, propose to remove hundreds of granite setts and replace them with concrete (EE, August 15).
The whole character of the bridge will disappear, adding another ruined structure to Aberdeen’s history.
Never mind – the setts will be stored and may disappear like the UTG stones and various artworks, which are still lost.
T Shirron, Davidson Drive, Aberdeen.
Put brakes on daft speeders
Sir, – As a resident of Bankhead, I read with interest the article published in the Evening Express of August 23 voicing the concerns of the residents of Bankhead Avenue regarding speeding traffic.
Can I respectfully suggest that any council spokesperson checks the facts before speaking to the press.
The statutory speed limit in the area is 20 mph, not 30, as was stated in the article.
This speed limit has been in place since the new Stoneywood School, pictured, opened in August 2018, taking in Bankhead Avenue, Bankhead Road, Greenburn Road, Greenburn Drive and Stoneywood Road as far as the A947.
Over the years there has been little or no monitoring, or enforcement of, the speed limit in the area, in which both Bankhead Avenue and Bankhead Road are used as rat runs.
Monitoring in Bankhead Avenue is doubly important as it is a bus route and also the route used by heavy lorries and council vehicles coming from Bankhead Industrial Estate.
The traffic situation is exacerbated by the indiscriminate parking on double-yellow lines on the roads outside the school in the morning and in the afternoon by parents and guardians dropping off and picking up pupils. In the afternoon, it’s not unknown for some pupils to cross the road from the school to their parents’ vehicles without looking.
It’s an accident waiting to happen. Again, there seems to have been no monitoring of this.
Pat MacDonald, Bankhead Road, Bucksburn.
Conversation