As A taxi driver, I work nights. Every Dundee housing scheme has 20 to 30 youngsters running about at 4 o’clock in the mornings.
None look older than 14 and many less than 10. Even the better-off areas are not immune.
This amounts to at least 300 parents who don’t give a damn what their kids are doing.
It is neglect on a grand scale.
If we sort out the parents, then they might sort out their kids. — E. Bignell.
Football late at night
In ANSWER to the letter about Marryat Street, Dundee, I have lived here for about 10 years.
It was a good little scheme. Now parents let their children play football in the streets till late at night with no regard for others.
Come on parents. — Play Fair.
Class sizes
REDUCTION IN class sizes has been aspired to for years and Dundee has been given £536,000 from the Scottish Executive for primaries 1 to 3.
Yet Director of Education Anne Wilson says it’s too short notice to use it in this fiscal year.
I am sure forward plans are made to reduce class sizes when cash is available and have been there for as long as the Executive have been promising this.
So why has this money been rerouted to capital projects?
What does the Scottish Executive think? Are Audit Scotland happy?
Children will have moved on and will never reap the benefit of smaller class sizes.
It’s this shortsightedness that blights Dundee’s education. — Concerned Parent.
Flaunting rules
I totally agree with reader Parking Mad, who complained about cars parked on the grass near Bell Street car park.
I live in Dudhope Crescent Road, above Burnside Properties, and have to pay £60 per year for a parking permit. I rarely get a parking space when I return home. Cars are always on double yellow lines or on the grass, but wardens seem to turn a blind eye.
Why should they flaunt the rules and get away with it! — Susan Price, Dudhope Crescent Road, Dundee.
Light stolen
A lowlife stole a fairy solar light and two fairies from our daughter’s grave in Birkhill Cemetery.
We hope he or she is proud of this despicable act.
If you have any respect at all you will return these items. — Norma Young, Clattowoods Terrace, Dundee.
Better off
I am unemployed and have to pay council tax and a mortgage.
Single parents are better off than the unemployed.
Some single parents think they are hard done by.
People who are unemployed would like to work. — Jessica Fletcher, Dundee.
Bike stolen
My SON went into a newsagent in Barnhill on August 22 to collect his papers and when he came out some person had stolen his bike.
My son works in all sorts of weather to deliver papers and needs his bike as his round is scattered.
If your child came home with a red BMX then you should be asking them questions.
This matter has been reported to the police. — Lorraine Thomson, Crail Place, Dundee.
Fantastic pharmacy
I LIVE near the foot of Hilltown, Dundee, and am 88 years old.
I go to the nearest pharmacy and can’t praise it enough.
They save lots of visits to the doctor with their advice. Their patience and tolerance is fantastic.
I’m so grateful to these hard working people. — Grateful Old Lady.
Who polices Camperdown Park road?
WHO IS responsible for policing the road which runs through Camperdown Park, Dundee?
There is supposed to be a 10mph limit, but this rarely happens.
Parents with children, dog walkers, runners, cyclists and others all use this road. But cars and vans (including council vehicles) rarely keep to the limit.
Traffic calming measures are non-existent.
Surely something can be done to slow down the traffic.
This is a park — not the M1. — C. M.
Bloomin’ huge
THIS IS a photograph of my four-year-old daughter Emily with her sunflower.
Emily and her granny planted it from a seed in February and, as you can see, it is huge.
Emily wants to let everyone in Dundee see how big it has grown. — Shirley Bell.
[Has your youngster grown a big sunflower — or any other giant plant or vegetable? Send us your snaps.]
Nursery nurses undervalued
Once AGAIN nursery nurses are to be devalued. Single status in Dundee City Council has deemed they don’t deserve the wage they now earn.
People in the profession will now move to the private market and the people who will suffer will be the vulnerable and disenfranchised.
Children and the support they desperately need will evaporate as the cost is judged by market forces.
The knock-on will effect primary and secondary schools in years to come.
Dundee City Council has taken a backward step to the Victorian era where children, especially the very young, were exploited for monetary gain. — Broughty Ferry Reader.
Time capsule
A TIME capsule buried 20 years ago in the grounds of Menzieshill Church is to be dug up. To celebrate this event on Saturday, September 1 (7-10 pm) we will be entertained by Dundee Accordion Band.
If you would like to come along and meet up with old friends, tickets cost £5 and include supper.
Contact Kathleen McNicol on 01382 621361 or me on 01382 667440. — Elizabeth Anderson.
Not helping ex-NCR jobless
What IS the Pace group actually doing? Ex-NCR employees, seeking to retrain, must identify any courses, then they must have an employer willing to take them on or have an established business plan to become self-employed.
It would make more sense for Pace to contact employers.
It would then be in a position to offer people more constructive help.
Many employers get so many CVs, calls and emails from job seekers that the tendency is to take little or no interest in the majority.
Also, many courses have waiting lists and anyone who takes a job while waiting becomes debarred from receiving any financial help towards course costs.
Many people cannot afford to wait until a course starts without some form of income. — Disheartened, Dundee.
Lazy residents
I REFER to the letter about the number of bins left out on Lyon Street, Dundee, and can confirm the reason is that many of the residents are too lazy to take them out and in.
I am a former resident of Lyon Street and got sick of doing this every week on my own. The few decent residents of other tenements had the same problem. — Hilltown Hawk.
THE ADDRESS for readers’ letters is - Readers’ Page, Evening Telegraph, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL. They can also be placed in our post box at our offices in Albert Square, Dundee, emailed to us on letters@eveningtelegraph.co.uk or faxed on 01382 454590. We ask correspondents using a nom-de-plume or sending by e-mail to provide a name and address for reference purposes. The editor reserves the right to reject or edit any letter. Please keep letters as short as possible.*
