Milton view Never mind the bollards
Dear Editor, I read with interest your front page article on the supposed ‘traffic calming’ bollards in Sherry Drive, Hamilton, and the very high cost of replacing the continually-damaged units.
I use this road when visiting family members and can fully endorse the frustration of other like-minded drivers.
Instead of being ‘traffic calming’, it does seem to me that it encourages potential road rage and perhaps there is also a ‘sporty’ element to it as well.
I would have thought that the council would have learned a very big lesson from the ridiculous traffic calming, and at considerable cost, in Auchingramont Road where I confess, when having to use this road, it has a traumatic effect on me to the point I still cannot count the number of stupid and dangerous road humps ( I believe it might be nine).
I think we can all site areas within the Hamilton road network that concerns us.
Personally, I feel the Peacock Cross junction is a farce and clearly there are major problems with all the roads surrounding this important junction being at times grid locked.
Some weeks ago, when I noticed that the junction of Muir Street/ Cadzow Street was to be closed for some time, I actually thought that this junction would have major reconstruction. I still wonder what the road closure was all about!
I believe South Lanarkshire Roads Department do a good job but the above four examples need to be looked at urgently.
Name and address supplied Dear Editor, One would hope that the SNP’S policy of minimum unit pricing for alcohol had been brought in with the best of intentions, but I fear it is fraught with unintended consequences.
If we look for comparisons, we need look no further than the consumption of cigarettes.
On one hand it is reported that the sale of cigarettes is falling, and on the other hand we are told that the consumption of cigarettes is rising.
The difference is clearly made up of counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes.
It seems that the same will happen with alcohol. There is good evidence that huge amounts of counterfeit alcohol, particularly vodka, are already on the market.
It has been suggested that there will be a huge increase of booze cruises to Europe, but why bother when you only have to cross the border to get your cheap alcohol? Could Carlisle become the booze capital of Britain?
Surely the Scottish Parliament should be redoubling its efforts to tackle the underlying causes of addiction. We can only hope that the new legislation will have the desired effect, but I doubt it.
John L Rimmer, Park Road, Hamilton Dear Editor, There is a lot to be proud of since we were founded in 1961. Seven in ten people now survive a heart attack; the idea of heart transplants is now a reality and the majority of babies born with congenital heart conditions now live on to adulthood.
We want to say thank you to everyone who has donated to the BHF over the years – your money has helped to make these breakthroughs and save millions of lives; we simply wouldn’t have come so far if it wasn’t for your generosity.
But unfortunately, heart disease and circulatory disease isn’t a done deal. In Scotland alone, an estimated 685,000 people are living with cardiovascular disease, and every year around 15,300 people die from these conditions.
Up and down the nation, thousands of scientists are making it their mission to keep more families together. As you read this letter, we are one step closer to finding a cure for heart failure, pioneering new methods of diagnosing inherited heart conditions and improving surgical procedures. But these projects will cease to exist without donations, as they aren’t government funded. Please visit www.bhf.org.uk/ thankyou
Simon Gillespie Chief executive British Heart Foundation