A daft proposal for the HighStreet Renthikerow

With reference to last week’s article on page 2 of the Ayrshire Post, I fully agree with John Scott - this has to be one of the daftest proposals yet for the High Street, and a complete waste of money.

In my opinion, what would really encourage more people to walk and cycle around the town would be to sort out the appallingly bad pavement and road surfaces in suburban areas after all, if you’re going to cycle along the High Street, you’re going to use suburban roads to get there.

Likewise, people who don’t have a car and live within a reasonable distance will walk to the town centre. Speaking from experience, the pavements in Southpark Road, Ronaldshaw Park, Midton Road etc. are in a shocking state. Admittedly, they were not improved by the trenches dug by Virgin Media all over the area a few years ago! As for the roads, I gave up cycling long ago - not because of the traffic but because of the potholed and uneven road surfaces, some of which are positively dangerous for a cyclist. Angela McAllister, Ayr

HappybirthdayOdeon Ayr’s Art Deco Odeon, the first and last Odeon still operating in Scotland, will be 75 years old this year.

How nice that it will once again be seen in all its intended glory with the welcome demise of its neighbour.

Given the Council’s rather large unused land bank it seems only appropriate that the Burns House site be returned immediately to its previous use as a cinema car park. In these tough times cinemas will need all the help they can get. And for sure Ayr needs the Odeon. Happy Birthday Ayr’s Odeon John Dunlop, Ayr

Standforelection,John In response to Mr John Dunlop (Letters Jan 27) who requests a full economic model ofhow the SNP will fund future expenditure, I will do my best to answer that shortly.

It is perverse that Mr Dunlop is unwilling or unable to answer the questions I have previously put to him in the Ayrshire Post on December 2 and January 6. What Mr Dunlop undertakes, is to obfuscate and move on to some other subject. At the end of the day, readers know what Mr Dunlop is against, but what does he actually stand for or believe in apart from his repeated, vitriolic, personal attacks on Cllr. Siobhian Brown.

In the words of Joe Biden the newly elected president of the USA, we should remember democracy is a fragile thing and not to be debased. Freedom of speech is to be respected, not abused. If he is so publicly spirited and concerned, why does Mr Dunlop not put his money where his mouth is and stand for election? I suspect he is not man enough for that, as that would take courage and commitment for whatever it is, he might believe in. He labels me and others as being members of a “cult” which as I have said before is preposterous, certainly I am a member of the legal and wholly democratic, Scottish National Party, which with over 120,000 members,is more than the combined members of the other four main parties in Scotland.

As regards how Scotland might fund Independence, decent pensions and a socially just society, I will try and be brief: renewable energy £6 billion, oil & gas £5 billion ( yes, it’s still there!) food exports £2 billion, whisky and gin, £7 billion, financial services £7.5 billion, life sciences £5 billion, chemical sciences £4 billion, forestry £1 billion, tourism £6 nillion, the list is endless, plus other taxes such as VAT National Insurance, fuel tax, vehicle excise duty, corporation tax and many others, all of which goes down to the Westminster coffers.

In an Independent Scotland, there would be no tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands or The Channel Islands for the benfit of those who like to wave the Union Flag, but who do all they can to avoid or evade UK taxes. Mr Dunlop may be content with a system of government based in Westminster, which condones 25 per cent child poverty, fuel poverty and a dependence on foodbanks, but I and at least 52 per cent of the electorate in the wider YES Movement do not accept that in the supposed sixth richest nation in the world, led by Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg, Rishi Sunak and other multimillionaires in the Conservative Party, this state of affairs should continue.

Even the former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown now agrees that the UK is a failing state.

I do not anticipate any answers coming from Mr Dunlop anytime soon.

Alec Oattes, Ayr

Mentalhealthtimebomb The number of recorded deaths from Covid 19 recently passed the shocking figure of 100,000 in the UK and over 8000 in Scotland.

The physical effects of this deadly virus are sadly well documented and have at least resulted in a glimmer of hope through the development of the vaccine. However, there is no vaccine for the mental health effects of the virus. Nothing that will mitigate the loneliness of lockdown, the trauma of watching loved ones become ill, or even die, the unfulfilled grieving through not being able to have proper funerals, the stress of losing jobs and incomes, and the lack of socialisation and education for our young people.

These have hit even harder in this second lockdown as people’s resilience is tested again. The Scottish Liberal Democrats have long highlighted the shortfall in mental health services and the lack of investment in these services compared to the spend on physical health. Our children and young people often have to wait months to even get an appointment with a specialist, resulting in more acute symptoms and a longer recovery. We will continue to press the Scottish Government and individual health boards to ensure there is robust planning and the allocation of sufficient resources to tackle the mental health legacy of the pandemic. Now more than ever we need to give much-needed support to those who have, and continue, to suffer these long-term effects of Covid. Catriona Bhatia, No 1 List Candidate for South of Scotland Liberal Democrats

BurnstaughGaelicsongs

Anent Gaelic singage in South Ayrshire I have to say we are getting treated to another dose of Scottish cringe with the tedious moan of“better things to spend money on.”

Councillor Saxton, on this occasion, I might have some respect if he spoke from a position of knowledge.

Through my historical research I can show that Gaelic was a community language well into the 18th century in southern Ayrshire.

Robert Burns’s mother taught him Gaelic songs and among her contemporaries and not too distant neighbours were women who asserted their Gaelic heritage by using the feminine prefix to their family names. Here are a few taken from original historical records: Helein NicKaffie 1625 Maybole (Testament). Florence NicDowall, Lady Greenan 1627 (Testament) widow of Kennedy of Baltersan. Annabel Nickfeyane 1635, Girvan (Testament). Ann NicClure 1781 servant at Kirkmichael House. Grace NcAndelish married in 1797 in Symington Parish, died at Dunure Mains in 1829. These women did not live in isolation they were all part of ‘clusters’ of others who sued ‘Nic’ - daughter of, and men who used ‘Mac’ in their names.

As for Gaelic place-names, there are a multitude of them in Carrick such as Baltersan, Cultizeoun, Dunure, Greenan, Dalchomie, Auchinblain, Pinmore, Barr, Dalquharran, Kilkerran and Ballantrae.

History is a nation’s memory and just as a man who has lost his memory is a sad soul, so too is a country which loses its history and culture.

James Brown, Ayr

While councillor Phil Saxton is correct about rent surpluses going back in the collective pot, South Ayrshire could have, if it so wished, reduced rents by use of the surplus income from the provision of a sheltered housing service as a political choice.

It does raise the point if you have in excess of a 885k surplus from the provision of that service ,then why were you seeking agreement to raise the rents for sheltered housing to pay for the enhanced management of that service. Surely that would be absorbed by the surplus it created.