WITH reference to Dave Morris’s letter on culling red deer (March 13), there are no areas in Scotland with average deer populations of 50 deer per square kilometre. There are times of year when deer will come together, especially in winter snow, and if you have 50 deer in a one kilometre square, and you count them in that one spot, then you can say there are 50 deer in that sq kilometre. But to get that, there will probably be no or very few deer over a much wider area at that particular time.
To imply that the 50 is then the norm is wrong. The neighbouring properties mentioned are successfully regenerating Scots pine forests, and have long since adjusted to local circumstances.
Scottish Natural Heritage chief executive Francesca Osowska will be well aware of initiatives and progress that has been taking place in recent years. No government agency can operate on the basis of hyperbole. Times have changed, and we are all working together to achieve the wider set of outcomes that everyone wants.
Victor Clements, The Native Woods Cooperative (Scotland), Aberfeldy.
Match the Juniors
IN the Juniors and non-leagues, due to our less than predictable weather resulting in call-offs, it is commonplace for seasons to stretch to the end of May and even into the first week of June. Clubs are expected to fulfil their fixtures, and if that means fielding reserve or youth players to get over the line, so be it.
With a mere eight games of the season left, the professional clubs could easily finish on a two-game week for a month and still have time to finish the Scottish Cup and play-offs. No excuses. Time for our overpaid carthorses in our Mickey Mouse professional league to earn their wages for once and put in the extra shifts after the layoff to get the job done.
Mark Boyle, Johnstone.
BBC badly treated
DOUGLAS Cowe (Letters, March 13) raises the canard of a TV licence costing only 43p per day. Our TV is largely for my wife’s enjoyment; I doubt if I watch 43 minutes a day. I much prefer radio and newspapers.
Mr Cowe bypasses the point that a free TV licence from age 75 has long been part of our culture, and that the poor old BBC has been put in an unenviable position by government.
Just for the record, the term “I’m tempted towards a criminal act” formed the heading inserted above my letter of March 11. My own words were that “I feel disinclined to stump up from June 1”. This is a fair old confession from someone who is the son of a police superintendent, and whose criminal record thus far in life consists of being caught at age 14 riding his bike after dark minus a back light.
I’m grateful to Ian W Thomson (Letters, March 13) for elevating the tone by referring me to the motto of Jamie Burnett of Leys, chief of Burnett (Courage flourishes at a wound). My own motto is the Scots word “Leal” (true-hearted). It’s evident that Government action on the BBC has been anything but leal or true-hearted. So at this stage the feeling remains that I feel disinclined to stump up from June 1, and may yet end up having to await the arrival of the tumbril.
Gordon Casely, Crathes.
I AM not sure that Douglas Cowe is correct in believing that banging up Gordon Casely for a few weeks for not paying his licence fee will deprive him of the delights of BBC broadcasts. Quite the opposite, if my recollection is correct of reading some time ago that prisoners enjoyed TV (and presumably radio) in their cells, at taxpayers’ expense. So no worries there about paying the licence fee.
Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.
LED astray
REGARDING recent correspondence regarding driving with or without lights, to we are increasingly visually challenged with the arrival of new light-emitting diode headlights (LED) . These are almost as intense as a constantly-lit flash bulb. The intensity causes discomfort and in extreme cases momentary blindness whether the approaching lights are in dipped or full beam mode.
It mostly always appears to be the larger SUV-type vehicles where the lamps are set higher above the running surface and as such I would have thought the dip and full beam angles should be adjusted to the same focal point as for standard family saloon cars.
Archie Burleigh, Skelmorlie.
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