NHS staff praised for help

I would like to give a massive thanks to two couples who assisted my wife when she had a nasty fall in Ayr after shopping.

She came down heavily on her side and head at the Gulf petrol station on the A70 and was very distressed and shocked, but able to tell the people who came to her aid that I was waiting for her in the nearby Morrisons’ cafe.

One of the gentlemen came in to find me while the others stayed with my wife until I could join her, then helped us into my car for the journey to A& E. I cannot thank them enough for their kindness and attention.

Also, at a time when the NHS is being given such bad publicity, I can only give praise to the staff in the unit at Ayr hospital who looked after us so well.

As my wife had a huge lump on her forehead she had to have X- rays, ECG and CT scan before we were able to return home, but we were in and out of Accident and Emergency in about three hours and despite the busy waiting area in admissions the staff were all kind, pleasant and helpful.

I admire and praise their dedication in trying times for the NHS.

I personally did attend dance classes more in primary school than secondary although the Scottish dancing is taught in Marr and a number of secondary schools.

If the PE department want pupils to attend a Ceilidh perhaps then they should hold this at the appropriate time of year rather than Christmas, then only students who want to have a night of traditional dancing can attend.

By having an annual Christmas dance for S5 and S6 this I believe should be open to all pupils as a traditional modern dance such as a disco or band.

Also I can’t remember the girls running away but if they did it was their loss, perhaps that makes the point picking a girl or picking a boy to dance with. is certainly out of date when instructed by teachers. Here are some solution to the flag problem at Castle Greyskull.

1. Remove the flag pole completely and our councillors will not need to argue about which flag to fly and can use the time to discuss important matters.

2. Remove the decision from councillors on which flag to fly, and when, and allow the public to decide.

3. Buy more flag poles and insert them in front of the county building and have one flag for each of the nations of the UK flying all year round to show that the people of Ayr welcome anyone from the UK.

4 Buy a further pole and insert it at the corner of the Low Green for the use of any organisation or business who want to use it for a weekly charge, the proceeds to be used for the good of the people of South Ayrshire. the backlash of relocating three holes to the Old Racecourse site.

An alternative site could be found... oh wait there are in the two courses earmarked for closure those being Dalmilling and Maybole.

These courses could be used to avoid altering a long- established course and renewing one that would secure its future sadly unless the public make these suggestions the technocrats serving the council would not put this forward as a compromise solution so the new mantra for South Ayrshire is think before you act think before you speak and think what is best for the people you are representing . I write further to your article ‘ Stagecoach urged to explain key route axe’.

It is a shame we were not given the opportunity to comment on this.

Mr Milligan is quoted as commenting that he has been unable to speak to anyone at Stagecoach. This is simply untrue. Mr Milligan has spoken to myself and other directors on at least three occasions.

Furthermore, our Operations Director has attended a meeting with Mr Milligan and others to discuss the service 14.

On the last occasion I spoke to Mr Milligan, he informed me that he would be inviting me to a further meeting but I have yet to receive this invitation.

The 14 was a service that ran every half an hour between Ayr and Irvine viaMonkton and Troon.

In June 2017 we added an extra bus into the service to address a long standing issue with late running caused by traffic congestion in Prestwick.

Unfortunately the result was that this route was no longer viable and was costing us money to run.

Two thirds of passengers on the 14 travel between Troon and Ayr and, in order to ensure we can offer the widest bus network possible for as many people as possible with the finite resources available, in a way that best reflects passenger demand, we decided to split the 14 in Troon, with a bus to Ayr every 30 minutes and a bus ( the 14A) to Irvine every hour.

Indeed, some readers may recall reading about this at the time in The Ayrshire Post.

This resulted in passengers travelling to the Southern part of Troon from Irvine having to change bus or walk when they arrived in Troon.

We have explored the possibility of extending the 14A from Irvine to this area but this is not possible without putting an extra bus back in and undermining the routes viability.

I have explained all of this to Mr Milligan and remain interested in finding a viable solution to the problem he has highlighted.

In that respect, it is worth mentioning that improved parking enforcement and traffic management measures in Prestwick would enable us to speed the 14 back up and perhaps restore the old service.

However, without help like this, I do not see how we can give Mr Milligan what he wants. If anyone ever wondered whether our politicians live in a parallel universe, the letter from ToryMSP Brian Whittle ( “Punishing hard work”) in last week’s ‘ Post’ seemed like absolute proof.

In his attempt to score political points, Brian criticises the Scottish Government for raising some extra funds from taxation, while conveniently ignoring the wrecking ball of Brexit which his Westminster Conservative colleagues are taking to the economy.

Mr Whittle needs to remind himself that taxes are not the dirty word his party so often tries to portray them as, but are in fact, the hallmark of a civilised and compassionate country, which is trying to redistribute wealth and support a wide range of services and support for all its members, irrespective of their income or education.

He complains about very modest increases in tax beginning with £ 90 for those earning over £ 26000.

He moans that it is a tax on hard work and talent, which seems like desperation on his part.

It is also extremely contemptuous of those earning less than £ 26000, who Mr Whittle very clearly doesn’t rate as being either hard working or talented.

Boris Johnston and his Brexiteer mates drove a bus around promising that the NHS would be £ 350 million a week better off if we were out of Europe.

This oddly enough is very the figure which Brexit is actually costing the economy week by week, and it is only going to get worse.

The value of the pound has nose dived, and many services and industries are going to be facing a real crisis as vital foreign workers desert the sinking ship Britannia.

So Brian, please try a little harder to see the ‘ big picture’, and resist the urge to indulge in parochial point scoring - or are you really creating a diversion to keep our minds off the disaster unfolding in London?