Letters: Debt and pollution will be legacy of the tram project

How can Donald Anderson say the trams “were about our economy” when the business case used as justification for this disaster is a fairy tale that was never going to stack up (News, April 2)?

Try telling the tradespeople of Shandwick Place, Haymarket and Leith Walk that the trams are helping the economy and they will laugh in your face. Many people will have gone out of business and face financial ruin because of this vanity project.

Nor will it get any better when the trams are running as the roads will still be hopelessly congested due to the trams and tracks taking so much road space.

Donald Anderson is actually leaving a legacy which will be a blight on the city of Edinburgh for the foreseeable future.

The main legacy will be of a huge debt burden which was totally unnecessary.

But even worse, he is also leaving a legacy of congestion in our streets and increased pollution from all the traffic which has been forced off the main through routes and into residential areas.

Allan Alstead, Moray Place, Edinburgh

Evidence is key to energy debate

CLARK Cross (Letters, April 4) appears to dissent from the basics of mainstream science on climate change, and he has also suggested that shale gas is the great new hope for cheap energy, despite carbon capture and storage technology being hugely expensive to develop and, as yet, unproved at industrial scale.

He is entitled to his opinion, but without the weight of evidence behind him he will perhaps understand if it’s not only “green zealots” who disagree with him, but pretty much everyone else in the energy debate. Except Mr Trump, of course. Nice company to have.

Patrick Harvie MSP

More grown-up debate, please

MARTIN Hannan’s description of Nick Clegg as a “lickspittle lackey” (News, April 3) is just pointlessly offensive. I would prefer to see debate on a more adult level.

C Watson, Restalrig Road, Edinburgh

Let people make own decisions

THE Unionist mindset that tells lottery winners Colin and Christine Weir what they can’t do with their money is the same mindset that says Scotland has to waste money on illegal wars and nuclear weapons whether we want to or not.

Andrew JT Kerr, Castlegate, Jedburgh