YOUR VIEWS: SNP leadership, Culloden Battlefield trees and Academy Street 'discrimination'
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Readers share their views on a variety of topical issues.
Winner will still have questions to answer
Congratulations to the team at the Inverness Courier for successfully organising the SNP Leadership Debate for the north and far north of Scotland.
It is encouraging that all three candidates for First Minister accepted the invite of debating in Inverness.
Evidently a huge amount of work went into organising and hosting the event. The look and feel of the event was hugely impressive.
At the debate’s conclusion, whilst candidates were high on aspiration, hopes and ideas, they largely lacked specific details, which I would have liked to see the chair press candidates much harder on.
Notably, there was no question on what Independence would mean for northern Scotland and the specific economic costs and benefits. Yet, is independence not ultimately the main policy of the SNP? If so, why was there no specific question about it?
Independence will have a seismic impact on the Highlands of Scotland, yet I came out of the debate none the wiser on what this precisely entails.
This was an important event – the north’s one and only chance to fully cross-examine candidates, wherein close cross-examination would be crucially important to understand how realistic the candidates’ ideas were.
Yes, chairing a public debate is challenging. None more so than when politicians, the masters of avoiding tough questions and glossing over specifics, are centre-stage. Plus Nicky Marr (the chair) had the pressure of a live audience and cameras. Yet I left the debate with with more many more questions than answers.
Therefore, I hope that whoever becomes First Minister can be invited up for an interview by the Inverness Courier for a more forensic examination of their proposed plans and ideas.
James Rorison
Pinewood Court
Inverness
Trees getting in the way at battlefield
I went to see the battlefield at Culloden the other day, partly out of curiosity to see how the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) were coping with managing the woodland regeneration that has long threatened to overwhelm the battlefield site.
As a woodland advisor myself I have long wondered at how we find it difficult to get trees to grow in the places we want them to, and cannot stop them growing in places where we don’t want them.
I wasn’t expecting to find what I did, and I have to say that I am appalled.
Efforts at keeping the battlefield clear of trees by grazing with sheep, pulling and cutting have obviously proven to be unsustainable.
NTS have decided to try and keep a much smaller area between the lines free of growth, and have introduced cattle to try and control the trees outwith that core area.
However, in doing that, they have put up some very intimidating looking electrified fences, and have fed the cattle there all through the winter.
The ground is totally poached, and the whole thing looks horrendous.
You cannot look across the main part of the battlefield without having your thoughts dominated by the fence, and the desolation beyond it.
There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about proposed development taking away from the atmosphere of the site, but presumably that was to be some distance back from things.
What you see here is right on the site itself. It destroys the atmosphere of the whole place.
If NTS are unable to keep the site clear of regrowth, then surely the best approach would be to keep the centre area clear, and just let the trees grow elsewhere.
That would at least be natural.
A case could also be made for burning the site every 7-8 years or so, maybe combined with some sheep grazing in the early summer months.
I appreciate this may be difficult with the main road nearby, but this is an important national site, and it needs to be managed better than this.
When I went on to the site, there were people there scratching their heads about what they were looking at. I don’t blame them.
Very difficult to understand, and completely unacceptable.
Victor Clements
Taybridge Terrace
Aberfeldy
Academy Street plan will have huge impact
I live at Scorguie and those who live in Carse and Merkinch are being discriminated against as well (by Academy Street plans).
We will no longer be able to drop relatives at the station forecourt or at the back of the station, at the back of Eastgate Centre.
We would have an extra long journey going via Kingsmills or through the busy Longman via Millburn Road.
We can go to Strothers Lane and drop them off, but if elderly or with a mobility issue it’s a longer walk round to the London train platform.
This is the same if we want to go to the hospital or the car park at Eastgate Centre and Morrisons, we no longer can have this direct route.
Scorguie residents have to put up with long tailbacks as it is in both directions when Muirtown bridge is shut. Which happens from April onwards several times a day. All this for a short area of pedestrianisation.
The bus service is atrocious. My elderly friend, 85 years old, waited two hours for a bus home to Balloch today.
Why is it the minority wins – they don’t listen to the majority?
Extra time and petrol will be used and we have a four per cent council tax rise.
This is an SNP council, Greens and the cycle brigade wanting their way regardless of what the Inverness public majority want.
I hope Marks and Morrisons don’t pull out as that is where I shop. Because if I have to go round Kingsmills or the Longman I’ll just not bother.
The footfall to Eastgate Centre will fall.
It’s a vanity project just like the “wall”.
Phyllis MacRae
Inverness
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