Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: November 9, 2017

To have your say on any local issue just email your views to editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk. Please keep your contributions as brief as you can, and remember to include your name and address and also a daytime contact phone number in case we need to check any details at short notice.

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I was at Helensburgh Central station on Tuesday, October 31 to catch the 7.26pm train for Edinburgh. At circa 7.30pm it was announced that as the train was running ten minutes late the first stop would be Dalmuir.

This meant that the first five stations, including my destination of Cardross, would be missed. A number of passengers crossed the road to the Station Bar (does ScotRail or Abellio have shares in the place?) while myself and another passenger went to the ticket office to ask if an alternative bus or taxi service would be offered. Of course the answer was no.

The other passenger, an older woman on her own who was travelling to Dumbarton Central, was obviously distressed at being delayed. I took a taxi to Cardross at my own expense.

I have only used the train from Helensburgh to Cardross four or five times this year yet this is the second time this has happened.

On another occasion I was at Cardross waiting to board the train to Glasgow when it went through the station at a rate of knots to make up time because of a late departure from Helensburgh.

I no longer buy my tickets at ScotRail stations on this line as I cannot be sure that a train will stop to let me on or off.

Might I suggest that one way for ScotRail to try to meet its seemingly all important punctuality goals would be just to close half the stations on the line. The fewer stations you have, the fewer annoying, time-wasting passengers you would have to deal with – and those that are privileged enough to get on one of your trains would have a better chance of a seat.

Abellio ScotRail are not providing a fit-for-purpose service on the Helensburgh-Glasgow-Edinburgh route, and the quicker the contract is given to someone else, preferably a public owned company, the better.

John F. Robins, Bainfield Road, Cardross

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I write with reference to the recent coverage in the Advertiser of Helensburgh FC's investigation into taking on a lease of the East King Street park under community asset transfer legislation.

The people who are pushing back in response to the proposal are not looking to stop people playing football in the park, but just to leave it as it is.

The pitch is there (only one at the moment), the changing rooms are there and the football clubs have the whole park to train in already as there is no restriction whatsoever in anybody using the space. It is available for all, which, I think, is an important aspect of this.

I have helped support my son's team (HFC 2001s) with Kenny Russell at the Academy and spent many hours every Saturday morning at the park with my oldest son and his team mates for a weekly kick about to add to their formal training, so I do get that the park is a great place for football. But no one has yet come up with a convincing reason why there is a need to change the status quo.

If there was any fundamental lack of facilities, why is the football pitch or the rest of the park hardly used for games or training? Over the last few years, the average number of games played since season 2013/14 has only been 14 a year, according to council records, and the pitch has only been booked once this year.

Why can’t the council fix the one pitch currently in use and put the second pitch back (or is there a problem with the reinstatement by Farrans) and then reduce the costs of hire and make it available through affordability rather than through asset transfer legislation?

If the council is keen on providing sport for all and ensuring that children of all ages have access to green space, then free access and positive pricing makes this far more attractive for all.

My real beef is that the park is there for both Helensburgh FC and Ardencaple to use without changing anything, yet it's not exploited. Helensburgh FC use it a couple of times a week for training but as the bookings show there are hardly any games played on the remaining pitch.

Surely this all comes down to the council providing fit-for-purpose facilities rather than somebody taking over their responsibilities and the issues and problems that go with this.

Are we not all much better off if we harness all the energy that surrounds this – positive and negative – and use it to get the pitches in a playable state rather than a lot of "he said, she said"?

Our council tax has been spent on upgrading the pitch at Kirkmichael, which is available to let, so why are we not looking at exploiting that –given that, subject to work being completed satisfactorily, the Kirkmichael pitch will be far more likely to be playable when it’s been raining (god forbid!).

Graeme Ormiston, via email

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Many of your readers would have served in the Royal Navy and having left, possibly quite some time back, are now missing the camaraderie they had with their old shipmates.

To relive that camaraderie and possibly meet up with their old shipmates, they should get the monthly mailing list of ‘Royal Navy Reunions’ giving the dates, which H.M.Ship's Association, where it is being held and who to contact. Have a look at www.rnshipmates.co.uk and check out the ‘Reunions’ section, there are currently well over 30!!

Reunions listings is available by emailing royalnavyreunions@gmail.com See where the reunions are being held, and then find out what is included; such as a visit somewhere, a Gala Dinner, the ‘traditional’ tot of Rum on most of them. Of course the wives and partners are not forgotten; they meet up at the reunions and have a good time too!!

What does it cost? NOTHING. Nothing because the Reunion Listings are all collected, compiled and then sent out by email. There are no subscriptions or donations. But more important, it is also thanks to the hundreds of local newspapers, just like this one and others throughout the UK for printing my letters and subsequently reuniting 'Lost Shipmates'.

Mike Crowe, 'RN Shipmates'

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The separatists' continued mismanagement of our heath service was laid bare in a recent Audit Scotland report which has warned that Scotland’s health is not improving and the NHS faces significant challenges.

The NHS in Scotland 2017 report exposes just how badly the SNP has mismanaged the NHS since it came to power more than 10 years ago.

Hospitals are short-staffed, workers are stressed and the maintenance backlog is spiraling out of control. And while this happens, as this report states, people aren’t getting any healthier.

What more indication could the SNP need to show it has to change its ways on the NHS? For years it neglected the health brief at the expense of agitating for separation, and now patients are paying the price.

These problems are amplified in rural constituencies like Argyll and Bute that are more often than not forgotten about by the urban-obsessed SNP who only seek to centralise more and more power.

What we need is the SNP to listen to these concerns and others when they are raised.

Sadly what will happen is the usual zealot-like reaction from the ever-dwindling numbers of Nationalists accusing we in Scotland who make measured and reasonable criticism of the SNP's many failures as "talking Scotland down".

Scotland needs no lessons in patriotism from any Nationalist political party.

I know and love my country and frankly Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

Cllr Alastair Redman (Conservative, Kintyre and the Islands)

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As a Living Wage employer it is important that we play our part in marking Living Wage Week, the annual celebration of the Living Wage Movement, which takes place this week.

The real Living Wage is independently calculated each year, based on what it is assessed is needed to cover the basic cost of living in the UK, and now stands at £8.75 an hour. It should however not just been seen solely as an additional cost to an organisation because, as we have experienced, it brings considerable benefits.

This is borne out by research conducted on Living Wage employers. When they introduced the Living Wage they experienced` a 25% fall in absenteeism, with 80% of employers believing that the Living Wage has enhanced the quality of work of their staff and 66% of employers reported a significant impact on recruitment and retention within their organisation. Low staff turnover can have additional benefits such as lower recruitment costs and increased productivity.

Our success as a national water retailer, which undertakes the Scottish Government contract to provide water billing and efficiency services to the majority of the public sector, depends on the skills, enthusiasm, ambition and dedication of our employees.

Signing up to the Living Wage is not only the right thing to do, but marked an important milestone for us, boosting productivity and competitiveness through having a committed workforce.

We would urge other companies and organisations to sign up to the Living Wage and take advantage of the tremendous benefits this brings.

Tony Donnelly (Chairman, Anglian Water Business)