Private hire taxis logo could help keep streets safe

IN light of the recent attack on a reveller by someone masquerading as a private hire driver (News, August 23), may I suggest the introduction of a clear livery on each of the private hire cars?

As a private hire taxi driver myself, licensed through the City of Edinburgh Council, I don't think that the simple taxi driver licence plates are enough. Whereas black cabs are very distinctive, the private hire cars are marked only by the taxi licence plates, which sit beneath the vehicle's registration.

A party-goer attempting to get home in the small hours may be tempted to use any vehicle – I have seen them jump out in front of any car and put their hand out hoping it will stop.

Is it not time that the police and city council got together and discussed this fully? Private hire cars should clearly display the firm's logo on the car enabling vulnerable people to distinguish a veritable car from a bogus operator.
Stewart Scholfield, Craigmillar Castle Avenue, Edinburgh

No plans to sell off stake in bus firm
HAVING seen the article "Tram tax plan for city buses" (News, August 25), can I repeat to your readers that the council administration has no intention of selling off its stake in Lothian Buses?

I would remind you that, under the Transport Act 1985 which de-regulated bus services, the council is banned from any involvement in the company's detailed operational or commercial decisions, which are the responsibility of its independent board of directors.

It is up to that board to decide, based on its own priorities, whether it needs to review its fares. Any suggestion from the council of a levy on bus fares to pay for the construction of part of the tram system would, I am sure, get short shrift from Lothian's board.

Speaking personally, I would resist such a move. However, a range of other options for funding Line 1B is still being explored.
Phil Wheeler, Convener: Transport, Infrastructure & Environment Committee, Edinburgh City Council

Someone tell city about recession
HAVE councillors not heard of the recession that is affecting us all?

Everyone else has to cut back and live on a tight budget and shelve any ideas of grandeur as the recession bites.

Going ahead with the folly of trams while the essential necessities are shelved and now thinking of taxing the bus company to extend their flight of fantasy.

And they are ordering expensive new furniture for their comfort.

Have they no shame?
Rhoda Glanville, Rathbone Place, Edinburgh.

Ban this rubbish way to drive cars
I WAS pleased to read about a crackdown on drivers using mobiles (News, August 27).

But there's another nuisance – drivers throwing rubbish out of their windows. I collected a magazine on my windscreen thanks to a driver in front of me yesterday.

And driving out of the city the day before, a man at the wheel of – wait for it – a cleaning company's van launched an unfinished sandwich on to the road. Not a great advert for his employers!
Mr A Morris, St Leonard's Lane, Edinburgh

Come on Europe, let them eat cake!
I WAS unhappy to read that keen cooks and SWRI members might no longer enter bakery contests as EU regulations prohibit their food being eaten after the event.

Considerable time, expertise and money is put into the baking of cakes, biscuits and other dishes for these competitions and at a time of food shortages and rising prices in the shops it is a disgrace to insist on these items being binned at the end of the contest.

Often such items are auctioned to raise funds for hard-pressed community groups, but now, according to the latest Brussels diktat, not only can they not be sold, they cannot even be taken home and eaten by the winning cooks!

For the Eurocrats in Brussels to start legislating against home-made cakes and biscuits would be laughable if it was not so serious. It is another example of EU regulations gone mad and is one of a number of policies which have hampered Scottish traditions and rural life.

The Brussels bureaucrats should remember the words of Marie Antoinette who said "Let them eat cake!"
Struan Stevenson, MEP, (Conservative – Scotland)

Staff are real piece of work
BINMEN and street cleaners said they planned to work to rule – come off it. My sister's man is a binman, he is paid till 4pm yet he is in the house at 1pm. Work to rule? They don't even work a full shift.

Why doesn't the head of finance, Gordon Mackenzie get them to work the hours they are paid for?

As for street cleaners, all I can say is our streets are a disgrace, weeds are growing out of our pavements.

So let's get real, we the taxpayer are paying council tax so if you get a rise and it goes up, nobody wins.

We should privatise the lot and save the taxpayer money and the council would save money.

So get a grip and make them work till 4pm.
Peter Woods, Dundee Street, Edinburgh