I’ll be 90 in a few weeks, live on my own, and pay my Council Tax. This is another way the council is trying to fleece the citizens.

If I don’t pay this money I could be taken to court. What a worry I have had over Christmas. — Scunered.

The tolls are a barrier to free movement for us and for visitors. They should have been stopped long ago, but it seems the Executive and some local politicians want to keep tolls and increase them.

Our alliance has now put in an electronic petition to MSPs calling for all the tolls to be removed.

We want the bridges and their approaches to be part of the national road network.

You can help by signing the petition. There is a website www.notolls.org.uk — George Campbell, National Alliance Against Tolls Scotland, Glenrothes.

One chap deliberately thrust his trolley next to his wife standing beside me at the veg section, meaning I had to walk round them.

He really looked at the end of his tether and ready for a fight.

Hardly anyone was willing to give way to other shoppers — talk about trolley wars.

I ask that people appreciate everything they’ve got, spare a thought for what is going on in the rest of the world and, to put it bluntly, grow up. — Mike.

We’d like to thank parents, friends and all who helped raise the money.

Thanks also to Stobswell Church and the Friends of Whitehall Theatre for the interest in our school choir and to shoppers in the Overgate Centre who encouraged our carol singers. — Pupils, Clepington PS, Dundee.

Scotland needs to be looking forward, not harking back. — Clepingtonia.

For countless years the forest elves,

Had a secret they kept to themselves.

‘Til they sought an answer to the riddle,

How each had a gold bolt in their middle.

This oddity must have been meant,

Because not one elf was born exempt.

As brothers, sisters, dads and mums,

All had bolts fixed to their tums.

A young elf pondered how this was,

And determined he would find the cause.

But first he went to seek advice,

From the brown owl who was old and wise.

As retired headmaster of owl college,

He was well known as a fount of knowledge.

And famous for the helpful tips.

Which tumbled from his learned lips.

He listened to the question brought,

And after some time lost in thought.

Suggested in a course of action,

Culminating in a bolt extraction.

So the elf searched round and found a spanner,

Which he used in the usual manner.

Hoping with the bolt’s removal,

He’d maybe gain the tribe’s approval.

The elves all gathered round to see,

If he would solve the mystery.

Then stood dumb-struck, bereft of sound,

When his bottom fell and hit the ground.

— Ron Irvine, Fintry Road, Dundee.

I was adamant that it was mine as I was reading off my pay slip but the person on the other end kept saying that it belonged to somebody else. She couldn’t even be bothered to check her records. Well, I have had my National Insurance number checked and guess what? It’s mine. — Mrs H. Johnston.