Why is Edinburgh council insistent on pretending Gaelic is widely spoken?

Your readers should be aware that the City of Edinburgh council is consulting on a new Gaelic Language Plan. Among other things it suggests that Gaelic road signage should be introduced in areas of the city, including “iconic tourist sites”. Presumably that means that in the historic Old and New Towns streets such as the Canongate, Lawnmarket, Grassmarket and Princes Street will have bilingual signs with invented Gaelic translations suggesting that these areas of the city were built by a gaelic-speaking community.

In fact, Gaelic was only a significant language in the area from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, long before the Old and New Towns were constructed by a community which spoke Scots. In my opinion this amounts to a falsification of history.

Other sections of the plan propose “a Gaelic place naming approach in the Local Development Plan and street naming proposals” and the inclusion of the plan writer’s version of the history of Gaelic in the city as part of the training for all new employees.

There is a suggestion that the city’s “branding”, including corporate logos and the like should incorporate Gaelic translations.

This would give the erroneous impression that Gaelic is widely spoken in the city, rather than the reality, which is that according to the 2011 census fewer than 0.2 per cent, or 800 individuals of the city’s 507,000 population, spoke the language at home.

I appreciate that the council is compelled by national legislation to produce a plan out of all proportion to the actual relevance of Gaelic in the city but in times of great pressure on funding and cuts in essential services the approach should be to comply with statutory requirements only rather than grandiose plans which misrepresent the importance of Gaelic in the city’s past and present reality. ROBERT CAIRNS Harrietfield, Perth