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Readers’ letters: Look into all options for tram concept

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Sir, – As headlined in The P&J, council leader Marie Boulton is absolutely spot-on on the possible return of trams to Aberdeen.

However, I would urge the council to look to numerous European cities (far beyond Edinburgh!) for a concept.  Electric buses with overhead cables would be my choice.
Routes could be trialled, extended or pruned with minimal impact to roads and utilities.

Please look into all the options.

Dave Russell, Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

No sense in Covid jab appointments

Sir, – The Covid-19 strange decisions are alive and well.  I have just returned from a week’s holiday to find my booster jab appointment and that for my wife waiting on the mat.

My appointment was for Tuesday October 19 at 16.20 and my wife’s on Wednesday October 20 at 08.30 at Ballater.

I was amazed that such a stupid decision could be made to make people of my age – I am 77 and my wife is 71 – make a journey of this sort in October over the Lecht Ski Centre road.

The weather at the moment is mild but next week we could be under snow and ice and the risk to my health could be greater by making such a journey.
Who made this decision? Clearly, these decision- makers know nothing about the geography of Scotland.

I rang the free phone number and after much discussion got a new day in Elgin and a much better time when both my wife and I can attend at the same time.

This is fine for me but the rest of Tomintoul and Tomnavulin and a lot of the surrounding area are still stuck with Ballater. This re-arrangement is only papering over the cracks of a flawed system.

Are we going to be stuck with this stupidity for the rest of our lives for what is, effectively, a five-minute flu jab? Hundreds of people are making this journey at personal risk and cost for appointments that can be carried out in minutes at the local doctor’s surgery as they used to be.

This unit at Ballater is a bus. Can’t the bus come here and do the whole village in two days? After all, they will have to do home visits to some villagers who have no way of getting there.

If some sense is not applied soon, this rank stupidity is going to cost the NHS a fortune and do no end of damage to its reputation.

Moreover, if somebody from this village or area goes off the road as happened at the second vaccination time, and gets killed, the ramifications will be tremendous. Pray it doesn’t happen.

Mike Budd, Tomintoul, Moray.

An eventful few weeks in politics

Sir, – A week or two in politics can be eventful. First, a carefully staged “scum” speech, followed by an orchestrated fuel crisis that never completely was, and accompanied by a man-made go-slow by civil servants responsible for processing HGV licences.

What we need urgently is another single issue referendum: Conspiracy theories or perfect storms?

Alan Sim, Hammerfield Avenue, Aberdeen.