THE recent letter (August 31) from Gordon Mann in support of the proposed Galloway National Park deserves a response, not least because readers may not be aware that Mr Mann is a trustee of the Galloway National Park Association, the organisation behind the bid.

But I am grateful to Mr Mann in one respect: that he confirms a new national park in our area would indeed create “increased bureaucracy”, just spuriously claiming that farmers would be able to avoid it, which experience in the existing two parks would contradict. And indeed, he contradicts himself by then pointing out a national park would make them think about carbon output and biodiversity.

The operative word he avoids is “force”, and such interference with dairy farming, so crucial to this area, poses an unnecessary threat to a key source of employment but he then claims the brand of a national park will help low-income families. It can’t be good for low-income families while at the same time creating problems for a sector which literally provides our bread and butter.

But it is the cost and expense of new bureaucracy which is so incongruous with the difficult times in which we live. The Scottish Government has just cut £500 million from its budgets, including £115m from health and social care, yet it persists with a costly consultation for a system which, if established, would cost upwards of £13m a year.

There is not a single benefit supporters of the National Park promise that is not achievable without adding such needless and prohibitively expensive red tape. We have the magnificent Galloway International Dark Sky Park which could be enhanced, and we have so many hidden gems which could be promoted to attract tourism through VisitScotland, had its budget not been slashed by £0.8 million.

The Scottish Government has systematically hacked away at local authority budgets, and one effect here was that local nature rangers employed by the council were axed. Mr Mann's argument actually proves that all the SNP needs to do is invest in existing organisations and the same goals will be achieved, if not more.

And as it appears Scottish Government ministers will override the protection under the new National Planning Framework that national park status was supposed to provide against the onward march of onshore wind turbines, the question is what’s the point?

There are so many other priorities in Galloway which must be addressed, rather than this vanity hangover from the SNP’s disastrous Bute House Agreement with the Greens. We need better roads, better health facilities, better schools. Nobody in Galloway ever, except Mr Mann and his associates, says that what we really need is a national park.

Denise Brownlee, No to Galloway National Park, Gatehouse of Fleet.

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Trains plan makes sense

THAT ScotRail is to procure trains to replace its fleet of High Speed Trains (HSTs) is economic sense, not madness, as described by Gordon Casely (Letters, September 5). The HSTs will be 50 years old by 2030 and, despite their refurbishment, have never been the most reliable of units. Rarely are more than two-thirds of the fleet available for traffic and they are extremely expensive to operate, both in terms of maintenance and fuel consumption. Their non-availability has required short-notice replacement by the three-car Class 170 units as I believe Mr Casely experienced a short time ago. He is lucky that there was a Class 170 available as I recall that Abellio's original plan was to dispense with them when it took over the ScotRail franchise. It remains to be seen what type of unit ScotRail will procure. Suitable Voyager-type units will soon become available with the introduction of bi-mode units on the Midland Main Line between London and Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. However, given the advances in technology, a fleet of new bi-mode trains may be preferred as they will be able to take advantage of extension of electrification from the Central Belt northwards. The latter will, of course, take longer to arrive.

It is not only the HST fleet that will require to be replaced soon. No fewer than 83 of ScotRail's diesel multiple units out of 117, as well as 55 electric multiple units, will have reached or be approaching 40 years in service by 2030 so cannot be expected to continue to operate much beyond then.

Ian Harrison, Glasgow.

Fault lines

MARK Smith comments that the English have often been horrible to the Scottish, and the Scottish have often been horrible to the English ("I never thought I’d say this: I am not proud to be British", The Herald, September 6) . He concludes that we are as bad as each other. That remind me of this apt quote by the American writer and historian, James Truslow Adams: "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us."

Irene Munro, Conon Bridge.

Strange ideals

MY favourite example of a radio speaker's less than perfect choice of standard phrase came not from a sports commentator (Letters, September 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7), but from a Ministry of Defence spokesman on the Radio 4 Today programme in the 1980s.

He was being quizzed about the cancellation, for reasons of cost, of an order for new destroyers. The Navy's top brass were highly critical of the decision but our man declared the cuts to be unavoidable. He did, however, acknowledge that the decision was regrettable: "One would naturally wish that things were different. We would of course be ordering these destroyers - and more tanks and warplanes too - in an ideal world."

Robin Dow, Rothesay.

The capercaillie is on the brink of extinction in ScotlandThe capercaillie is on the brink of extinction in Scotland (Image: PA)

Make a noise for the capercaillie

IT would, of course, be a sad day for the countryside of Scotland if the prediction of the country’s gamekeepers about the demise of the capercaillie turned out to be accurate ("Gamekeepers warn capercaillie now ‘on the brink of extinction'", The Herald September 7). It is known for its size, its grand displays, and its male song, which has been outlined as "beginning with a resonant rattle, continuing with a pop like the withdrawing of a cork, followed by the pouring of liquid out of a narrow-necked bottle and ending with the sound of knife-grinding." Alas that such a bird, with its distinctive sound, could be lost to Scotland.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

Sticking point

THE price of a first class stamp is rising to £1.65 on October 7. On Saturday I received a letter from Canada with a stamp costing C$2.92 which, at current rates of exchange is £1.64 and it only took a week to get here. Which is better value, I wonder?

Steve Barnet, Gargunnock.