Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: June 1, 2017

To add your views to the mix, email editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk - we'll publish the best in the Jun 8 print edition of the Advertiser. Happy writing!

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Like many local people I have been lucky enough to have been able to use the local GP out of hours service at the Vale of Leven Hospital when needed, and like most local people I have been very concerned to hear that this service is under threat.

On Friday, May 26 I was fortunate enough to be invited to meet with local GPs regarding the future of service.

It was clear at this meeting that local GPs also value this service and wish to support it – despite a suggestion from the health board that it is the GPs who are the problem.

However the GPs I met were unanimous in their view that removing this service from the Vale hospital increases the risk to vulnerable patients, puts at risk all services at the Vale as they become less financially viable, and threatens the Vision for the Vale that has been agreed by the Scottish Government.

Local Liberal Democrats have been campaigning to ensure there is full consultation on this valuable and valued service.

The local GPs agree that substantial consultation is required before any decisions can be made. Will the Health Board now let local people really have their say?

Cllr Ellen Morton (Lib Dem, Helensburgh and Lomond South) (Chair, Helensburgh & Lomond Area Committee)

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Readers of your article ' Monstrous plans for new housing under fire' featured on pages 1 and 5 of last week's Advertiser, might want to know that they can still write letters of support or objection to the Persimmon planning application for the 76 new homes at the former Dobbie’s site off Glenoran Road in Ardencaple.

Argyll and Bute Council have extended the deadline for responses to this planning application until Wednesday, June 7. All the resident groups in Ardencaple have come out in opposition to the application and many letters of objection have been lodged with the Council so far.

Letters and emails should include the reference number 17/00837/PP. Letters should be addressed to: David Moore, Planning Officer Argyll and Bute Council, Helensburgh Civic Centre, East Clyde Street, Helensburgh G84 7PG or by email to David.Moore@argyll-bute.gov.uk

Kathleen Siddle (Architecture & Design Helensburgh), Duchess Park, Helensburgh

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I had been looking forward to the live streaming of the RSC's "Antony and Cleopatra" at The Tower last Wednesday evening, but on trying to make a booking I was told that the showing had been cancelled owing to lack of ticket sales.

The Tower cannot afford the fees to show these world class performances of drama, ballet, opera and concerts unless they are adequately supported.

Helensburgh is fortunate these days to have such a great facility - thank you to Brian Keating and all the team - but as far as culture is concerned we must use it or lose it.

Alice Spouge, via email

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On Sunday, May 28, a gentleman stopped to speak to those working on the Community Garden project in James Street. On hearing that the work was being carried out mainly by volunteers, he immediately donated a sum of money to help with the costs.

I would like to pass on my thanks for his kindness, especially as he lives in New Zealand.

Since John was visiting his sister in Helensburgh, I hope he will be able to see this letter, or that she will pass on our thanks to him for generous gesture.

Catriona Malan, via email

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Much has been made by the Unionists of the proposed relocation of the submarine fleet to Faslane.

However, as we know from past experience, only some 15 per cent of the naval personnel live in our community, and the rest reside largely in England, where they pay their taxes and bring up their families. 

According to Babcock local management, they use the accommodation blocks on the base at a subsidised rent during their short week and return home for weekends. 

Because of the facilities within Faslane they rarely venture out to spend in Helensburgh and the wider west of Scotland.

On current published Royal Navy salary scales, the economic loss to this community and Scotland’s public funds is around £64 million per annum - which, when coupled with the knock-on economic activity that sum could generate in the private sector, means we are losing four to five times that amount each year.

With that sort of money Helensburgh and Lomond should be not just the wealthiest area in Scotland, but one of the wealthiest in the UK.

Clearly it is not, as the presence of food banks, lower house prices than comparable Glasgow suburbs, and its plummeting population over the last ten years demonstrate.

Unionists are now saying that this will all change when the fleet comes. However a letter I have received this week under Freedom of Information from the Ministry of Defence casts a very large cloud over this assertion.

In it the MoD confirms that no official survey has been carried out amongst the existing submariner community based in the south as to its members' willingness to relocate their homes and families to the west of Scotland whenever the fleet comes here.

On a strategic planning level that shows a level of incompetence which we have come to expect in MoD commissioning contracts, but one would reasonably expect that before the Navy and Argyll and Bute Council make preparations for the arrival of the fleet, they would have at least surveyed the families affected by the move and know how many people will come and live here.

Unless the MOD is going to force naval personnel to move here permanently, which would be intolerable in a so-called democratic society, then yet again the British Empire’s new clothes look increasingly skimpy.

And however much its local apologists, Jackie Baillie and Gary Mulvaney, execute their never-ending Faslane Dance of the Seven Veils, those with Helensburgh and Lomond’s future at heart will see that the sooner Scotland extricates itself from this hollow Union, the better.

Graeme McCormick (Convener, SNP Dumbarton Constituency Association), Redhouse Cottage, Arden

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How dare our current SNP Member of Parliament, Brendan O'Hara, blatantly misuse the word 'Scotland' instead of 'SNP' in his recent campaign literature.

In a leaflet I received from him through my door it clearly states, regarding the General Election, that this is about "Scotland versus...the Tories".

Well, how can Scotland be competing with 'the Tories' when Scotland has so many 'Scottish Conservatives' within it?

I'm sure his party would object strongly if the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party campaigned stating that this election is about "Scotland versus...the SNP".

I personally feel that it must be sheer arrogance that makes folk in the SNP presume that they speak for us all. They do not.

Denise McLaughlan, Kilcreggan

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A week ago your readers' letter page was well filled with letters from many supporters of Alan Reid. Most, though, of these letters missed the point.

We elect a Member of Parliament to bring his/her knowledge and experience to assess the policies brought by the Government before Parliament, not choose an energetic social worker.

Clearly, the big issue before the government following June 8 is to negotiate Brexit. The position here is that we are leaving the European Union in March 2019, whether we like it or not.

In these negotiations, all parties in the United Kingdom are very anxious that these 

negotiations result in a good deal. To claim, as some do, that the Tories want a hard Brexit is simply untrue, and deliberately misleading. Remember, Mrs May was a 'Remainer'.

The problem facing us as voters is that the more who vote LibDem or SNP, the stronger our European 'friends' will feel to drive for a hard Brexit.

So for a good Brexit, a vote for the Tory candidate is the only rational vote.

John F. Stirling, 15 Duchess Drive, Helensburgh

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Another week and another clutch of meaningless election leaflets falls through the door from Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats.

All of them claim your vote will prevent another independence referendum in Scotland. All of them are dishonest.

The fact is the mandate to hold a second vote on independence was granted in the Holyrood election of 2016 and recently endorsed by a democratic vote in parliament.

These three parties would rather hide behind this smokescreen than face up to what is actually on offer in the election on June 8.

The Conservatives will take us out of the EU with disastrous economic consequences - Ruth Davidson herself told us only a year ago that leaving the EU would crash the economy.

Before negotiations have even begun, the pound is on a downwards trajectory and inflation is rising, many larger companies are making plans to relocate to EU countries, and Scotland is predicted to lose 80,000 jobs as a result of Brexit.

Disappointingly, Labour will also take us out of this trading bloc with no clear plan on how to mitigate the resulting loss to business. The Lib Dems, who have no realistic prospect of being in government, are at least offering a vote on any future EU deal.

The trouble is, who can trust them after they propped up the Tories from 2010-2015?

When we voted to stay part of the UK in 2014, it was on the prospectus that this was the only way to guarantee our status as part of the EU.

Well, things have changed and the people of Scotland should have choice to remain part of Europe as an independent country or accept the fate of an increasingly isolated UK.

Eleanor Hunter, Helensburgh

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I have just seen Alan Reid's campaign leaflet and would like to respond to the following claims it contains.

First, “he was the MP for 14 years and knows how to stand up for the constituency”. How he accomplished this Herculean task remains unclear but at least he apparently knows Argyll as well as any bus driver.

Second, “He will fight against a further independence referendum”. How he proposes to do this, given the Scottish Parliament has already voted in this regard, is, as above, unclear - unless of course he doesn't recognize the right of our nation's parliament to consider matters of national importance .

So while the Scottish Parliament wants to give Scots the right to vote on Brexit, Alan doesn't trust them to vote the right way, so let's not have a referendum. Democracy in action, Liberal style.

Third: “When he was Argyll's MP he voted to build Trident.” This is hardly surprising. However, in a world where we have difficulty finding cash to support new aircraft carriers, and where troop numbers are at an all time low which is alarming given the real threats we face for terrorism, do we need to put Alan back in Westminster to simply vote as lobby fodder?

Or do we need someone who can think beyond nuclear to the actual needs of the Royal Navy over the next four decades?

Fourth: “Lib Dems will invest in education and mental health.” He can't do this: both services are devolved to the Scottish Parliament. As such, this is empty rhetoric.

Finally: “Lib Dems will boost pensions.” This is nonsense, given the Tories' promise to end the 'triple lock', and as such anything the Liberals say about this is meaningless.

Bryan Ritchie, via email