Letters: Where will the children go if we keep on closing schools?

I HAVE come to expect more of Margo MacDonald than that she regurgitate city council propaganda on school closures (News, 16 December).

Margo swallows the line that the only way to stave off budget cuts is to close schools. In fact, at best, only 16 per cent of the £5 million cuts to schools next year will be accounted for by closing schools.

Looking at the whole Children and Families budget, the council's decision to close four schools will save less than 6 per cent of the cuts projected.

If the city council is correct about the savings needed in school budgets over the next three years, the city would need to close 30 primary schools and six secondaries, taking it far below the number of schools needed for the number of children. Closures in themselves are not a route out of the budget crisis.

The case is even poorer when one looks to the long term. The population of primary-aged children in the city is due to rise by 20 per cent in the next ten years. If we keep closing schools piecemeal where are these additional children to go?

PPP is dead in the water. Scottish Futures Trust is a non-starter.

Parents are right to ask very significant questions about the grip that the city council has on the future of education.
Gavin Corbett, Briarbank Terrace, Edinburgh

Don't accept what politicians say
DRUMBRAE Primary school is to close because the two local councillors, Robert Aldridge and Colin Keir, were too weak to stand up for the people who elected them.

So next time a politician tells you they are going to work on your behalf, do not believe them.
Karen Keil, Drumbrae South, Edinburgh

Mirror that reflects badly on council
THE council's approval of another eyesore development in the city-centre (Morrison Street) shows (News, 16 December), yet again, shameless pandering to rich developers whilst dismissing perfectly reasonable objections from residents who then have to put up with the unsightly results.

"The developers have clearly played the game with us in terms of coming up with a partial solution," said Councillor Milligan of the developer's token gesture to put a mirror on the side wall.

Perhaps if the developers were persuaded to clad the entire building in mirrors it would fit in better with its surroundings, as opposed to the red-brick, glass and metal structure illustrated, which is totally out of character with the rest of the street.
P G Smith, Easter Road, Edinburgh

Come on Gordon, give us all a break
WHAT terrible news it was to read of the airline staff who will lose their jobs now their company has gone bust (Hundreds of redundancies as Flyglobespan nosedives, News, 17 December). It's all the more galling when you think of the strike that was threatened by British Airways' well-heeled "trolley dollies" on their high salaries and travel perks while many of us holiday at home, or not at all, as times are tough.

Gordon Brown has spent a fortune of our hard-earned money on bailing out reckless bankers, and is currently threatening to spend good money after bad on ridiculous promises we cannot afford to keep on emissions.

How about giving us all a break, literally, by bankrolling a company which could give us some much needed time off from this winter of discontent?
Pam Tandas, London Road, Edinburgh

Get on your bikes abroad, cyclists
HOW many more letters are we going to read like the one from the "terrified" cyclist Tom Martin?

The point has been well made that there were tramlines along Princes Street for 85 years and those of us who cycled in the city then soon learnt to deal with them safely.

I was in Seville in the summer soon after its new tramway running along a pedestrian precinct was opened. It was obvious that the many cyclists had soon learned to live with the new rails and pointwork, in fact several cycled along the between the rails, some of them in the wrong direction.

I suggest Mr Martin takes a holiday in Amsterdam or any other Dutch city with trams.
N Mackenzie, Grange Loan, Edinburgh