Readers' letters: Make Holyrood Park available to all

When people bought their houses near the park they knew that traffic used it. The park is huge. Surely there is enough room for walkers and children to use it. Children don’t get taught to play on the roads, walkers don’t walk on roads and wheelchair users don’t go on the roads.

There is a speed limit in the park. When was the last road traffic accident in the park? Have you asked the people who live in Duddingston village how they feel about the terrible congestion on the roads round the park caused by it being closed?

I live in Penicuik and go to Meadowbank every weekend to take care of my 94-year-old aunt and also during the week to take her to appointments.

When I get to Duddingston the line of traffic goes back from the crossroads to the golf course, with cars ticking over. The park belongs to everyone, so let us all be able to use it. Judging by the cars parked in the streets all round the park they are being a bit two-faced as they can just walk to the park - we can’t all do that.

Mrs Susan Smart, Penicuik

Self-defeating traffic ambitions for city

In evidence to the tram inquiry, Michael Apter says that the “City of Edinburgh Council tried to do some things to bring more people into the city. One of those initiatives was the festivities that Edinburgh puts on during Christmas.”

Now, during the period when those festivities are on, vehicles servicing the site block the cycleways on the mound and Market Street. So to sum up: the city bought something it didn’t need (a tram), tried to undo some of the harm with something else it didn’t need (a Christmas fairground), and in order to keep that latter thing going, blocks the way for the one thing the city does need: places for people to travel safely by bike.

Joseph Coulson, Edinburgh

Deflating SUV plan for Scottish plant

An all-electric 4x4 SUV will soon be built in Scotland. The greenhouse gases created by its construction will be enormous. The lithium used in its batteries created toxic lakes and illness where it was mined. Will Tyre Extinguishers let down its tyres?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

Give members a voice on Filmhouse future

It is good to read that there are now two proposals for reopening Filmhouse.

The proposal from Prince Charles Cinema group is interesting, but obviously it would be good to know more about the intended programming.

For me, one of the strengths of Filmhouse has been not its big festival in August but the numerous mini-festivals of film from particular countries.

As for the bid from the previous management, it would be better if, rather than criticising PCC, they had been more positively forthcoming about what is continuity and what new in their own proposal.

It has been noticeable during the decine into insolvency and since, that members who paid subscriptions to parent charity Centre for the Moving Image have not been kept informed. I wonder who now owns the mailing list to sound out opinion before a deal is done.

Peter Lush, Edinburgh

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