Readers' letters:Church shouldn’t have education privileges

We were frustrated to hear that Scotland's Education Secretary has said there are "no plans" to end religious appointees on council education committees.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP speaking in Holyrood

This follows a recent stooshie in Shetland Islands where councillors described the situation as "unconstitutional and undemocratic" and "ridiculous in the 21st century".

In response to a letter from The National Secular Society, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP explained that the continued existence of faith schools and the "requirement to provide religious education" means there "continues to be a role for religious groups in denominational and non-denominational schools alike".

What a bizarre case of the cart pulling the horse! We teach PE in schools but we don’t have unelected footballers voting on education committees.

If Christian churches want more of their god in schools they should stand for council elections on that ticket and we would support their right to do so.

Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society.

Ewing highlights failed road policy

How refreshing to hear Fergus Ewing this week slay his own SNP administration in the Holyrood chamber over their failure to keep their promises with regard to upgrading the A9.

Clearly, as Mr Ewing said, the plans for completion of improvements for this killer road in the timescale the SNP gave time after time are impossible.

The hostility of the Greens to possibly life saving improvements – two people were killed there recently - are well known.

When an SNP stalwart breaks ranks and openly criticises the leadership of the party in such an open and unambiguous way, breaking the SNP’s previously watertight and unwritten ‘’no internal criticism’’ law, the writing is on the wall for this discredited and ultimately hopeless administration.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

World animal road accident awareness

World Animal Road Accident Awareness Day is held each year on October 10. Every day 630 cats are hit by cars in the UK, 25 per cent fatally.Although our campaign centres around cats, this is an issue affecting all animals.

In Britain, annual road casualties are estimated to account for 100,000 fox deaths, 50,000 badgers, 50,000 deer and 30 million birds. Hedgehogs once topped the death table with 29 per cent killed by cars, until they entered the critically endangered list.

Based on statistical analysis of those potentially unrecorded, the realistic death rate is estimated to be around 70 million animals.

Highways England states 2143 dead animals were found on just 4300 miles of motorway - accounting for just 1 per cent of the UK's entire road network.We can't stop roads being built, or animals wandering on to them, but we can make people acknowledge what has happened and encourage they help the animal, if not help prevent most collisions happening in the first case just by highlighting the issue and bringing it to the forefront of drivers minds .Our pets are somewhat luckier, with human owners who love them as family.

All us drivers have a moral obligation to help all living creatures we injure while driving.We hope to have your support on/around October 10 and thank you in advance for support you may wish to give.

Visit https://nationaltoday.com/world-animal-road-accident-awareness-day/

CatsMatter

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