YOU report that Glasgow has "secured a city deal with the UK Government for a programme of infrastructure investment valued at £1.13 billion" ("Glasgow joins English cities to boost power", The Herald, August 14).
This sum involves the UK Government investing £500 million over a 20-year period, or £25m a year. The Scottish Government provides exactly the same amount over the same period. The investment covers the 1.8 million people in the whole Clyde Valley Region.
To put the 20-year, £1.3bn in context,consider the massive 15-year, £15bn joint plan for Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. These five aim to create a "connected region" that would challenge London. Labour has endorsed this One North: a proposition for an interconnected region report. George Osborne plans to put the regeneration of northern England at the heart of his Autumn Statement,with the promise of new money for infrastructure, transport and science in the region. Mr Osborne has spoken of connecting "the great cities of the north" and of a "supercity" - a conurbation of nine million people - to create a rival to London.
The One North report aims to raise the GDP of these five cities to match those of the 10 million in the five cities of the Rhine-Ruhr region and the wealthy Dutch conurbation of Amsterdam/Utrecht/Rotterdam and The Hague.
Councillor Gordon Matheson is mistaken when he speaks of working with his "sister cities". The English North's Big Five are working for themselves with bigger money and aiming faster at top European standards. If Glasgow is a sister, her name is Cinderella.
Councillor Tom Johnston (SNP),
5 Burn View, Cumbernauld.
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