‘Green projects’ damage environment - your views

" Many residents have started cutting down mature trees and hedging to pave front garden space”

Controlled parking zones are on the increase in Edinburgh

‘Green projects’ damage environment

Recently, a London-based company surveyed my residential area here in Edinburgh about extending controlled parking zones so that pretty much all of this almost entirely residential area of multi-occupation dwellings will be a cash cow for Edinburgh council.

Before you conclude that I am a selfish diesel polluter let me state that I have not owned a car in nearly two decades.

Couched in terms of ‘green’ initiatives the proposal sent out in large glossy brochures, has had the very predictable anti-green outcome.

Many residents, reeling from the economic/emotional effects of Covid and fearing the horrors of Brexit to come and desperate to be able to visit and be visited by family, have started cutting down mature trees and hedging to pave or brick-over front garden space.

Now, the fact that they probably won’t be allowed to park their cars there by crossing the pavement once paid street parking is introduced is a moot point. Precious trees and hedges will already be gone for good.

I do often wonder what qualifications are required to work for council planning departments…

Amanda Baker, Saughton Gardens, Edinburgh.

Please don’t bet on cruelty to horses

Animal Aid is asking readers to withdraw their support from the Grand National by not placing bets on the three-day event.

Since the year 2000, 53 horses have been killed at the Grand National Meeting, 12 in the main race.

Saturday’s Grand National is still almost five times more lethal than other steeplechases and fewer than half the crowded field of 40 horses manage to even complete the race. Many horses will suffer falls and get injured as they tumble over the fences.

Animal Aid has been at the forefront of exposing and campaigning against the racing industry for more than two decades. In 2007, we launched Race Horse Deathwatch - the only public record of the names and details of horses killed on all British racecourses.

By the end of March 2021, more than 2200 horses had been killed as a result of racing in Britain. Please don't back cruelty. Please don't bet on the Grand National.

Fiona Pereira, Animal Aid.

Covid restrictions get mixed policing

Is there one rule for cyclists and another rule for the rest of us? I ask because of the great numbers of cyclists I observed cycling down the Milton Road into Musselburgh and others going in the opposite direction over the Easter weekend, but in fairness not so many as on previous weekends probably due to the weather.

My understanding of the current Covid restrictions is that we have to “stay local” which we are told means staying within your local authority area, which clearly these cyclists are not.

I would have liked to take the family out for a trip in the car into the country over the weekend, but my understanding is that this would be in contravention of the Covid rules.

Cyclists, however, do this daily with impunity, hence my opening question

Eric Anderson, Duddingston Edinburgh.

Eastern limits

An east Edinburgh resident can now spend 30-40 minutes in close proximity with a hairdresser, feed his/her horse in Dunbar, visit their son in HMP Peterhead, but can’t play golf at Gullane – even although a Gullane resident can play in the east of Edinburgh. I struggle to see the public health reasons behind depriving city residents of fresh air and exercise in a pandemic.

Gordon Lawrie, Comely Bank Avenue, Edinburgh.