Mull will have £1m spent on its roads

In response to Sarah Palmer’s letter in (The Oban Times, April 12), I agree with her regarding the state of the roads on Mull but I feel it is unfair to say that I came over last year to meet with the roads group and no action was taken. I found the roads group very useful and informative and this helped me and the other ward councillors get more expenditure for the roads on Mull.

I am pleased to say that Mull will receive more than £1 million of capital investment this year and that is down to the work of all four ward councillors in recognising the situation of the roads in Mull.

This will go some way to address the problem but is nowhere near enough and if Ms Palmer could come up with any solutions to lever any more funding into our crumbling roads structure, I would be delighted to hear them. Councillor Roderick McCuish, Depute Provost, Policy Lead for Roads and Amenity Services, Argyll and Bute Council.

HSCP chief officer should stand down

The Caucus of Community Councils for Cowal unanimously object to and unanimously oppose the draconian cuts to health and social care which Christina West, chief officer of the Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership, put forward to the Integration Joint Board (IJB) last month.

The closure of dementia day centres, the withdrawal of support for those with learning disabilities, the privatisation of all council care home provision in Argyll and Bute were, we understand, only some of the completely unacceptable proposals made by Ms West and her management team.

However, we are also aware that previous rounds of cuts, proposed and implemented by the same team, have failed to meet their targets.

What was being put forward was, therefore, a failed policy which was simply to be repeated and its effect broadened in a desperate attempt to make up for severe management failings.

This approach is in dereliction of Ms West’s duty to deliver high quality health and social care to the people of Argyll and Bute. In addition, it would have led directly to some 400 hard-working and dedicated staff being made redundant.

The reputation of the management of the IJB is at an all time low, as is the reputation of the board itself.

We have no faith in either management or board members to act in the best interests of the area and ensure that the most vulnerable are looked after.

We also fear for the future of all health and care services in the area, particularly if the IJB remains unchanged. We, therefore, express ourselves as having lost confidence in Ms West’s leadership and urge you to step down from your current position immediately.

Thereafter there should be a structuring of the IJB to make it more responsive to local need and more accountable to local people. Conveners of the following community councils: Dunoon, Sandbank, Strachur, Ardentinny, Kilmun, Colintraive and Glendaruel, Hunters Quay, South Cowal and Lochgoilhead.

Islanders have been let down by CalMac

We on Islay are once again suffering disruptions to our ferry service at one of our busiest times of the year. How many more times will this have to happen before a solution is found?

The hard-pressed taxpayers have been subsidising the CalMac ferry service for decades yet these problems with our service seem to be increasing as time goes on.

Our economy is growing on Islay in both heavy industry and tourism alike but that growth is being stifled by the frankly inept management of CalMac.

The latest disruptions are by no means the fault of CalMac’s hard-working front-line staff but their management structure needs to be held responsible for this. Tens of thousands of pounds are lost from potential tourist revenue every year on Islay and Jura due to these disruptions.

Aside from the financial cost to Islay and Jura’s businesses, local residents are being hit unfairly with travel disruptions and huge inconveniences through no fault of their own.

CalMac’s management has for far too long taken its monopoly of our ferry service for granted.

Perhaps public patience has been tested for the last time. Councillor Alastair Redman, Islay.

Supporting people with Parkinson’s

This month marked World Parkinson’s Day. With more than 145,000 people estimated to be living with Parkinson’s in the UK, I’d like to take a moment to tell your readers why we’re passionate to do everything we can to be there for people in need of our support.

We understand that living with Parkinson’s can present daily challenges for the people affected and for those they hold close. We also understand that having the reassurance of knowing help is at hand can make all the difference

I work for Revitalise a charity that provides respite holidays for disabled people and carers all across the UK. We welcome guests with over 150 different conditions every year.

To find out more about Revitalise, our breaks, or ways we may be able to support you, visit: www.revitalise. org.uk or call: 0303 303 0145. Stephanie Stone, Revitalise.

Rhododendrons are unfairly maligned

Page 12 of the Lochaber Times and The Oban Times (April 5) had an article about a rhododendron festival. It started well with correct information about the 1,000 different species. However, after the first five paragraphs it descended into the usual ill-informed ‘invasive species’ and ‘eradication’ theme.

This continued through the rest of the article painting rhododendron as an unwanted, damaging, invasive species.

At no point do you stress that it is Rhododendron ponticum that is to blame and all those other species are beautiful garden plants with magnificent flowers and gorgeous evergreen foliage and, importantly, with no invasive tendencies.

Gardeners can plant rhododendrons with confidence knowing that they are not going to jump the fence and be an environmental disaster of the type you describe. It is such a shame you did not take the opportunity to balance your article with the correct information.

The invasion of Rhododendron ponticum has taken a long time, and landowners have chosen to ignore it until it has become a severe problem.

Forestry Commission Scotland is one of the largest landowners in Scotland, and is as guilty as anyone. Now it has woken up to the problem, the costs are high, and success depends on commitment to keep on top of it. John Roy,

Editor,

Scottish Rhododendron Society, Brecklet House, Ballachulish.

Glorious displays are to be seen in Argyll

Your article (‘West Coast in bloom for rhododendron festival’, April 5) invited the public to visit 20 gardens in Argyll to enjoy the spring flowering, rightly said to start in February and run through to August.

Unfortunately, you then go on to say that rhododendrons are invasive and can damage our native ecology.

This is one particular rhododendron – R ponticum – planted originally by landowners to form shelter, and not the rest of this huge family of more than 800 species and countless hybrids that can be grown in Scotland.

Visit one of the Glorious Gardens of Argyll and Bute (gardens-of-argyll.co.uk) and see these plants for yourself in all their beauty – flowers, trunks, habit, leaves and scent – during the festival.