REGARDING John Black’s letter about tourism and the SNP’s Scotland is Now campaign (August 23) as well as agreeing with him, I would go a stage further. VisitScotland and the SNP really do need to take a close look at the tourism infrastructure here. Every year my wife and I act as host to visiting family members from the United States and Canada for at least six weeks. There is common agreement in two areas; one is that the scenery in Scotland is beyond compare and the other is that service levels are all too often, appalling.
Anybody passing though Fort William, for instance, would be well advised to keep doing that. A recent stop for lunch found one restaurant "too busy" despite having available tables, and another having closed its upstairs dining area because the chef "couldn’t handle any more". We weren’t the only visitors trekking up and down the main street in a vain attempt to find a welcoming smile and a sandwich.
At a hotel restaurant in Drumnadrochit all lunchtime hot food was put on hold for an hour because a bus party had arrived and a well known historical tearoom in Glasgow the other day had run out of soup and clean teaspoons at one o’clock. The long list goes on; no attempt to address the litter problem; buses that are timed to misconnect with ferries and trains; and a certain amount of overpricing.
There has been enough written about fanciful vanity transport projects from Glasgow Airport without addressing the real problem which is the myriad bus services that hurtle past its door without stopping and the lack of any proper bus link to Gilmour Street. (The sporadic McGill’s 757 at nearly 25 minutes to cover three miles really doesn’t qualify.)
Perhaps it’s time we dispensed with the "wha’s like us" mentality and got down to addressing the poor service issues which, as a tourist destination, hold us back.
Robert Buntin,
G/F1 Morland House,
Longhill, Skelmorlie.
ON late Wednesday morning (August 22), I was being driven, by my wife, back to Ayrshire from a regular visit to a hospital in Glasgow’s West End. We were using a well-tried route, traversing Hyndland, passing through the Clyde Tunnel, heading for Mosspark Drive and the M77. To our joint horror, we found that Mosspark Drive was closed to all traffic and knee-deep in persons wearing yellow, hi-vis jackets. We were peremptorily directed to turn left and dispatched into the unknown hinterland of the Southside. To us, as West-enders in our younger days, this was a very scary prospect
Lost immediately, another yellow-jacket advised us to turn right into a very busy main road – Paisley Road West, apparently – and watch out for a big police station and Ibrox football stadium, at which point we should double back on ourselves and find Dumbreck Road. A pair of friendly Glasgow bobbies provided further assistance by identifying the police station a few hundred yards ahead; then we would see Ibrox. This worked and, soon, a blue motorway sign pointed to Kilmarnock but we found that this was the M8, not the M77 and our collective spatial awareness departed from us. Not knowing if we were east or west bound, we put a little faith in the signage and some ten minutes later found ourselves in recognisable territory at the very beginning of the M77. How that happened, we don’t really know.
We were incensed at the closure of such a major thoroughfare and don’t understand why this was necessary. We gleaned the basic information that the road was closed for some music event that evening – possibly some six or more hours later – in Bellahouston Park. All the hi-vis wearers were “security” staff and we saw no officials, police officers or notices. Is this not a serious infringement of liberty? Who pays for all this security and street furniture? Did the local authority approve all these arrangements, especially so many hours in advance of the event?
We also managed to notice miles of high black fencing. Was this not the subject of some recent action in Edinburgh – around Princes Street Gardens? Is Bellahouston Park not a public venue? Was the fencing approved? Why did everyone assume that we knew about local streets and landmarks. Simple diversion signs on such a key route to the M77 would have removed a fair amount of stress.
Our hearts go out to the local residents. We hope that most of them are fans of whoever is performing as we guess that it will be loud and busy.
Definitely not Glasgow’s finest hour for us – a most unfriendly experience all in the name of the contemporary music culture.
Dr David Sutherland,
1 Lochend Road, Troon.
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