Letters: People are paying for high energy cost with their lives

The horrifying news that over a million British citizens have died as a result of winter weather over the past 30 years should send a shiver down our collective spines.

The figures have been released by the Office of National Statistics and show that the deaths occurred mainly due to poor housing, high energy bills and pensioner poverty.

The SNP government’s mad dash for expensive and almost entirely useless wind energy has already driven over 900,000 households in Scotland into actual fuel poverty, where more than 10 per cent of income has to be spent on fuel.

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Average energy bills in Scotland have risen to over £1400. In ten years’ time, taking into account the subsidies for offshore renewables, the doubling of on-shore wind factories and the necessary upgrading of the national grid, we will see average household bills soar to a staggering £3500.

Energy prices at such levels destroy jobs, drive people into poverty and now we know clearly, they also lead to winter deaths. Even if Scotland was covered from end to end by giant wind turbines it would not reduce global CO2 emissions.

It is an empty and costly dream and one that is literally causing people to die of cold.

Struan Stevenson, Conservative Euro MP for Scotland, The European Parliament, Rue Wiertz, Brussels

Why do litter bugs behave that way?

Last week, travelling from North Berwick to Edinburgh by the coast road, I spotted at least six men clad in official Dayglo yellow jackets between Gullane and Port Seton who were picking up litter from the roadside. Congratulations to East Lothian Council!

In the chill of a Scottish spring, the road looked quite clean already but obviously lots of litter was embedded in the grass verges. However, many other Scottish roads glory in displays of all manner of cast-off detritus, not to mention wind-blown plastic shopping bags in hedgerows and trees. Fly-tipping is also clearly a popular pastime, despite the willingness of local 
authorities to uplift disused household items.

Since most of us try not to create litter, what is the psychology of the minority who delight in turning their country into a midden? Have academics any answer to the question?

Please persevere with the Evening News campaign against litter.

Robin MacCormick, Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh

Finances are safer if we stay in UK

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Recently the national press seems to have regarded Independence for Scotland as a given. I need hardly point out that it has not happened yet (and hopefully never will).

However, what concerns me more is the scenario where 
independence may become a fact and then the banks in Scotland collapse (look at recent news on Cyprus).

There would be no back-up, no bail-out – Scotland not being in Europe – and Westminster would likely say “get stuffed” and who can blame them?

I am filled with more than a little fear about independence – I say united we stand, divided we fall.

Julia Gordon, Hoden Hall Loan, Edinburgh

Once charm goes, it’s gone forever

The village feel of Stockbridge is surely essential to its charm (The Capital’s 
wanted sign, Evening News, March 22).

This is most evident in Portgower Place. This peaceful lane is flanked by green sports fields which were once farmland. It leads to the hill in Inverleith Park. You feel as if you have taken a short walk into the countryside, just as you might have done back in the days when Stockbridge really was a village.

Here you can enjoy one of the finest views of any city anywhere in the UK. But if the Accies developer gets his way you will be looking at a large empty grandstand with the city skyline as a backdrop.

One branch of his large L-shaped complex will sever the visual links between Stockbridge village and its countryside. The other leg will completely dominate Portgower Place and the last vestiges of rural charm will be gone 
forever.

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Stockbridge will be just another street-worth of shops, bars and restaurants with a stadium attached, just another district of Edinburgh as far as the casual passer-by is 
concerned.

Alan Murphy, Learmonth Grove, Edinburgh