I WAS both heartened and saddened to read the article by Phil Miller (“Orchestra hits all the right notes”, The Herald, June 19) .

I was heartened by the positive impact that Big Noise is having in Torry, as it also appears to have had in the previously piloted areas, Raploch and Govanhill. But I was saddened to read that Torry has become “one of the most deprived areas in Scotland” – and this in oil-rich Aberdeen, which has experienced over four decades of oil wealth.

I was raised in Torry and attended Walker Road primary school, one of those participating the Big Noise scheme, and lived in the area for most of my life before leaving Aberdeen to live and work in Glasgow in the early 1970s. If I have had a dram or two, I have been known to claim to yet be a Torry Loon, despite spending more than four decades in the Dear Green Place.

Whilst Torry, its economy based on the trawling industry and its associated land-based operations, was always a rough and ready place, no-one would ever have described it as deprived. Sadly, many visits back over the years have confirmed that the guts have been ripped out of the place, and that none of the benefits of the oil boom has come anywhere near Torry.

There are other areas of the city, for example Woodside in the north, where a similar tale could be told. Indeed, it appears that, outside London, the wealth gap in Aberdeen is greater than anywhere else in the UK.

When I moved to Glasgow I lived for two years in the mid-1970s in Govanhill. At that time it was a prosperous and “respectable” working class area ( a lot more “respectable” than demotic Torry, I can assure you). Forty years of economic policy and economic developments have made it and Torry two of the many communities that have become marginalised from the mainstream of economic and social life. It will need a lot more than Big Noise (more power to its elbow) to bring about a reversal of these trends. It will need political will and political change.

Ian R Mitchell,

21 Woodside Terrace,

Glasgow.

DAVID Johnstone (Letters, June 19)) is right that there is almost nowhere in Scotland that has been shaped only by nature and might therefore be considered wilderness.

Scotland’s wild land has a distinct and special character, recognised by the Scottish Government as a key component of our identity and important for the many benefits it offers, including economically by attracting visitors and tourists.

In drawing up the 2014 Wild Land Areas (WLAs) map, Scottish Natural Heritage adopted a robust and systematic methodology, including consultation that showed strong public support for safeguarding wild land. Our recent YouGov poll found that 80 per cent of Scots want to keep WLAs free of major development. The trust is taking the opportunity in the forthcoming Planning Bill to call for the protection given to national parks and national scenic areas from wind farms to be extended to WLAs.

This is not an anti-wind agenda, but a reflection of the pressure these areas are under from developments. We believe we can tackle climate change and develop renewables without destroying special areas.

Protecting wild land can go hand in hand with a living, working countryside. The trust’s campaign reflects the potential the protection of wild land offers to remote communities, including developing wildlife tourism.

In the YouGov poll the Highlands and Islands, where most of Scotland’s wild land is located, had the highest proportion of people (60 per cent) who strongly agree with the protection of WLAs.

Mel Nicoll, Campaigns Co-ordinator,

John Muir Trust, Station Road, Pitlochry.