As a mother of two children, and myself raised in Lochee, I am again outraged at reports of a known sex offender being placed in our community.
I say “again” because I believe there have been other incidents in the past, which were exposed before the perpetrator had a chance to offend again.
One such case involved a known paedophile being re-housed in a multi in Foggyley. This flat overlooked a nursery, and also a play park, not to mention a child play area adjoining the two blocks.
A demonstration/petition and actions of two strong-willed local women exposed this threat, and he was then moved on, for his own safety.
Exactly two years on another predator, who lived in the next close to us in Foggyley, was arrested after the walls in his bedroom were found to display sickening images of child porn.
Photos of fully clothed kids taken without their knowledge were also discovered.
We still don’t know if any of our own kids were photographed by this man.
But the worst thing to be reported was that a person with a new identity secured housing in one of the Lochee multis after an horrific case in England.
The way things are going, Lochee folk may be forced into taking matters into their own hands.
We have seen the decline in the area because of the junkies, the muggers and now sex offenders.
We don’t want them here. They have never been part of our proud, honest, loyal community.
Why was a council flat in a prime location close to schools, parks, swimming pool used for housing a high-risk teen sex offender?
Give us back our safe wee toon. — Sickened.
Cruel punishment
I read with astonishment the story in the Tele about the high-risk teen sex offender secretly housed in Dundee although he appears to have no connections with the city.
This situation is, as the Lord Provost says, “absolutely unbelievable” and is something the residents of Lochee should not have to endure.
Nor should this be happening anywhere else in the city.
Nevertheless, while this young man needs to be securely watched I could not help but feel sorry for him. He obviously has a major problem from which society needs protected.
But to release him from detention and then lock him up for 24 hours a day with two minders in a flat for three years is surely inhumane. No wonder he wants to go back to Polmont Young Offenders Institute.
Can you imagine a young person being stuck at home day in and day out for years. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
The European Courts have come up with many daft judgments over the years, but were they to order a halt to this cruel form of punishment they would be doing our society a big favour. — Fair Minded.
Dundee successes too many to list
To counter the negative publicity I have read recently about Dundee, I wish to highlight our city’s achievements.
I found these listed in Dundee City Council’s Performance Report (2007 to 2008) — which I obtained from my local library.
The restoration of Baxter Park received the award for outstanding performance and quality in the Scottish Awards for Quality and Planning.
It also gained the Green Apple National Award for sustainable use of a heritage building. It was shortlisted in the Scottish Design Awards.
Scholarly-wise, St Fergus Primary won the Eco Schools Green Flag Award — for excellence in environmental activities. Plus, this school got a gold award in the Schools Garden Competition.
Lawside Academy won the Best Online Presence category in the Scottish School Magazine of the Year awards.
Dundee was again named as one of the top seven intelligent communities in the world — by the Intelligent Communities Foundation.
The city’s accolades are too numerous to mention. — J. I. Matthew, Dundee.
Share van
Re the decline in donations to local charities, while having a clear out after Christmas I contacted every charity shop listed for Dundee on yell.com to find to my horror that while they are crying out for donations they can only accept them if you can drop them off yourself. They don’t do collections.
The PDSA said the van they had was released due to the cost of fuel. The British Heart Foundation was the only charity that could collect items. It may be that donations are down because people wishing to give may not have access to transport.
The charities should club together to hire/buy a second-hand van and split the donations between them. — Giver.
Radical measures needed to halt 30s-style decline
When will political commentators cease using the phrase “credit crunch”, which suggest a shallow and temporary dip in the country’s fortunes, when describing an economic whirlwind which is rapidly developing into a full-blown depression on a par with the 1930s.
Traditional economists and financial experts are attempting to fool us with incredulous explanations of phenomena of which they patently know nothing.
The next steps in the State’s response, if reports are to be believed, are interests rates of zero and printing more money.
These initiatives will be as effective as the throwing of £900 billion of our money at the banks has been.
The economy will correct itself eventually, but at what cost to the people who have allowed their money to be used to prop us a system which robs them?
Instead of home repossessions, redundancies and businesses closing one after another, we should promote wholesale public ownership of the banking, insurance and mortgage-lending sectors combined with public investment in our production and manufacturing industries,
We need social ownership of transport, energy generation and distribution, a considerable increase in pensions, benefits and wages to stimulate economic activity, a price freeze and a massive programme of council house building to explode the property bubble. — Raymond Mennie, Milnbank Road, Dundee.
Could we live like Braveheart?
Iwatched Braveheart on Film 4 and wondered if there was some kind of nuclear conflagration now, would we manage to live like the old days without modern conveniences.
The Japanese would, I think, be most likely to adapt with their paper houses, tea ceremonies and such like.
We forget the old days at our peril. — John Thornton, Pitfour Street, Dundee.
Late Christmas
The Post Office has surpassed itself. I received a Christmas card on Saturday at my home in Carnoustie posted in Llantwit Magor, Glamorgan, on December 14.
Someone else in Carnoustie also received a card on Saturday posted by the same person in Glamorgan on the same date. I’m glad it wasn’t an invitation.
The event probably would have been past by now. — Carnoustie Resident.
Innocent suffer
My retired mum had to go to the chemist for the whole family, as we all had the bug which is going around.
My young son was affected first. The doctor prescribed a decongestant.
When the rest of us fell ill, it seemed only right we should treat it the same way.
Unfortunately, my mum was only allowed one bottle of decongestant, as this medication had been abused illegally.
So this medicine will only last three people one day and we are back to square one.
Why are the rules made around all the wrong-doers and innocent people suffer? — Ridiculous.
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