Queensferry Crossing is fine engineering - your views

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Queensferry Crossing is fine engineering

Mr Alistair MacIntyre writes (December 8) complaining that the Queensferry Crossing was closed for a few hours last week due to a build up of ice on the towers and blaming it on “the incompetence of the SNP”.

I guess if it rained on his birthday he would blame that on the SNP too! Joking aside, the new bridge has been a great success and since it opened three and a half years ago, has been closed for only a few hours on a couple of occasions due to ice.

It has hardly ever had to close due to high winds, thanks to the clever wind shielding, whereas the old bridge was frequently closed under such conditions.

It has greatly improved the reliability of road communication to and from Fife and rightly awarded the Gold Medal for Engineering Excellence in 2018.

James Duncan, Rattray Grove, Edinburgh.

Hardstanding is no help to environment

I have noticed a number of people now creating additional hardstanding in their front gardens to provide parking for themselves and/or visitors as a result of reduced parking on Comiston Road.

For years the Green Party has condemned this practice as being non environmentally friendly as it cuts oxygen production and also results in reduced natural soak away and increased pressure on our drainage system.

Not exactly an environmentally friendly outcome as a direct result of the council’s actions.

Will this be replicated across Edinburgh? Could councillors please respond?

Ian Vandepeear, Comiston Road, Edinburgh.

Fossil fuels are still worldwide problem

Denmark is to end oil and gas extraction in the North Sea by 2050. Denmark has a minuscule 0.11 per cent share of global emissions, a bit like Scotland with 0.13 per cent which thinks it can save the planet.

Meanwhile, coal, oil and gas continues to supply 85 per cent of the world's energy needs.

The oil and gas rich countries of China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and many others have no intention of reducing their output and none will sign legally-binding Climate Change Acts before or after COP26 in Glasgow.

Clark Cross, Springfield Road Linlithgow.

Please don’t buy a pet for Christmas

Christmas will be different this year,but buying a puppy or a kitten is not the cure to our restlessness. Animals are living, thinking, feeling beings and a 15- to 20-year commitment – not visiting entertainers or gifts that can easily be returned if they “don’t work out”.

In the first lockdown, Google searches for “buy a puppy” rocketed by 166%. Then, when society reopened, many puppies ended up in animal shelters because the novelty had worn off.

Animal shelters predict high numbers of abandoned and neglected animals this Christmas as job losses and financial strain take their toll.

Even in a “normal” year, the festive period is a notoriously bad time to bring an animal into your home, as time, money, patience and attention are all in short supply.

If you’re certain that you’re prepared to care for an animal for life – including paying for routine and emergency veterinary care and providing house-training, food, toys, bedding, exercise, playtime and everything else needed – make plans to adopt an animal from a shelter after Christmas.

Jennifer White, PETA, All Saints Street, London N1.