YOU report today that Green MSP Ross Greer objects to the revamped plans from the Flamingo Land company to build a leisure facility on a brownfield site in Balloch ("Flamingo Land flies in with new tourist resort for Loch Lomond", The Herald, June 3).

Mr Greer objected to the previous application by the company, which would have both created local jobs and generated income for the area and warns the applicant that the 55,000 people who objected the last time haven’t gone away.

In the quotes you attribute to him his language comes across as entrenched and somewhat passive-aggressive. It creates the impression that there is little room for manoeuvre in his stance on this issue.

I would simply ask Mr Greer: in the intervening period between rejection of the last application and receipt of this one, how many jobs have you created in Jamestown, Renton and Alexandria? Further, if this latest application is likewise rejected, what are your plans for job creation and income generation, to help boost the life chances and opportunities of people living in the area?

Stuart Brennan, Glasgow.

BITE THE BULLET ON THE A83

READING Brian Wilson's thoughts on the Campbeltown/Northern Ireland ferry route ("Kintyre offers a link to Ireland that doesn’t have to wait for a bridge", The Herald, June 2) brought to mind the thought that we haven't heard much about progress with the Rest and be Thankful for a while. The last time I read about it, consideration was being given to snow shelters over the road, transferring the road to the other side of the glen or a possible road tunnel.

Surely building snow shelters would be a fairly dangerous undertaking with the unstable soil above, the moving of the road to the other side will only bring the same problems there. The tunnel would appear to be the best, but far more expensive, option. This is a case of biting the bullet and going for gold, so why not consider a tunnel from Sucoth under Ben Ime through to the bend on the A83 where it crosses Kinglas Water? The Rest and be Thankful could be closed and missed out altogether, yet still leaving access to all existing routes and properties off that road.

The existing diversion, other than the old road up Glen Croe, is the A82 along Loch Lomond. When I was driving up the loch regularly, almost 10 years ago, there was surveying going on to alter what is a pathetic A road, particularly with it being a vital trunk road for an ill-provided west Scotland road system.

George Dale, Beith.

JAMIE MURRAY SHOULD GET A GRIP

JAMIE Murray has criticised the the French Tennis Federation for its treatment of doubles players at Roland Garros ("Murray livid at French Open treatment of doubles stars", Herald Sport, June 3).

In his criticism, he tells us that "it's bloody expensive to go home now because you have to pay for Covid tests". If he can step outside the cloistered and rarefied world of professional tennis for a moment, he might recognise the community interest in complying with all the protocols the rest of the population have had to put up with in going about their daily lives and work.

He might also recognise that he is extremely fortunate in that he is able to continue with his profession while hundreds of thousands of his native population have been furloughed with no guarantee of future employment when the restrictions of the pandemic have been lifted.

Bill Stewart, Dunning.

FINE THE ROGUE SMOKERS

ASTHMA UK and the British Lung Foundation conducted a survey in Scotland which revealed that 80 per cent of those surveyed wanted smoking outside the school gates to be prohibited. In Oxfordshire smokers could be banned from smoking outside cafes and restaurants under plans to create the first smoke-free county.

Many would support these initiatives. However, smoking by patients and visitors outside NHS hospitals is still going on despite the clearly-defined No Smoking areas. Before lockdown thousands of cigarette butts would be thrown down outside pubs, cafes and restaurants. Unless there are draconian fines nothing will change.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.

BROADCASTERS, PLEASE GIVE US PEACE

AUDIO-VISUAL communication should be straightforward without interference. In recent years communication between listener, viewer, and internet user has become subject to active interference.

Traffic news on radio is accompanied by snare drums making it difficult to actually hear the announcer. Documentaries are spoiled by a constant background beat. BBC News on TV is introduced by a barrage of disturbing flickering images along with drumming. Consumer websites are spoiled by pop-up widgets asking you to chat to convince you to buy or garner your personal details.

It's time this built-in disturbance was removed from the ether allowing people to listen, view, or browse without disturbance.

William Loneskie, Lauder.

DID THE ROMANS INVENT THE KILT?

I SUSPECT that Iain Macwhirter is aware that he was entering contentious territory when he referred to the kilt having been "famously designed by a London tailor" ("SNP needs to remake the case for indy from the ground up", The Herald, June 2). There is at least one other school of thought, which maintains that the kilt derives from the ancient Roman tunic, having been developed from the Celtic leine, or long shirt.

The different theories, of course, can stimulate vigorous debate, and all that before getting into the subject of what came first – the kilt or the trews ?

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.