Our streets are for the use of all citizens - your views

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Our streets are for the use of all citizens

We can all agree with most of the points made by Councillors Johnston and Maciness in their recent pieces on the place of cycling in the city and the importance of making it as safe as possible.

However, not many of the city centre streets can easily accommodate multiple traffic use, and the needs of cyclists should not completely override the needs of other citizens.

Floating bus stops, for example, on George IV Bridge, hold up traffic and increase air pollution, while a number of bus stops have been closed, so longer walks for the elderly and disabled.

Edinburgh is not Amsterdam - I have seen two cyclists toiling up The Mound in three months!

There is no 100% perfect solution to Edinburgh's traffic problems, but please let's have a bit more consideration for those of us who are neither cyclists nor motorists.

John Bowles,

Nicolson Street, Edinburgh.

Airport access proves lockdown problem

Since I live in a different tier to Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon has made it illegal for me to travel to its airport.

Yet her SNP adminis- tration explicitly grants me the right to take a holiday in the Canaries without quarantining on return, by creating a travel corridor between Scotland and there.

But I wonder how I get from home to the plane - perhaps paraglide or maybe hire a helicopter?

Martin Redfern,

Melrose Roxburghshire.

City road changes always on the cards

Was there ever any doubt that Edinburgh Council would pass the changes they wanted to do to the roads in and around the city?

They received £2 million from the Scottish government to finish all the “temporary” road changes, so will they receive more funding when they have to undo the “temporary” road changes after the virus is under control?

We all know that temporary really means permanent to this council. The only way to solve the dreadful disregard for the people of Edinburgh and their concerns is to get rid of the councillors who do not listen to the people they serve and who put them in the jobs that they have.

I know of bus drivers and two black cab drivers who have now just given up. The stress they are under is unbelievable but it would seem that none of the effects this is having on people’s livelihoods is taken into account. It remains to be seen the effect all this change will have on businesses and, of course, safety to the public.

It’s no wonder so many people are moving out of Edinburgh, leaving it more a student and tourist city.

Mrs Susan Smart, Penicuik.

Antisemitism is not politically limited

There has been much cover- age of the EHRC report into alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party.

It would be difficult to pick up from a lot of the coverage that the report actually did not find the Labour Party to be institutionally antisemitic.

The EHCR report also came out in the same week that Tory peer, Lord Richard Balfe highlighted that the Tories are part of a political group within the Council of Europe which includes some appalling far-right racist and neo nazi parties.

These parties include the Sweden Democrats who Lord Balfe has personally seen walking around Stockholm with swastikas.

I would have thought these political links with the current Westminster government are worrying for Jewish people and anyone with an interest in building a decent society.

Arthur West,

Annandale Way, Irvine.