Letters: No one should be denied the right to peaceful protest

Buffer zones may end up increasing the prospect of intimidation because the protesters may feel the need to make their presence felt by shouting from the distance to voice their protests, which otherwise would be inaudible and virtually invisible.

If the buffer zones were stipulated to be five metres' distance from the entrance to the abortion clinics with a wide avenue between the ranks of the protesters and protesters had to remain silent and were forbidden to address the clients of the abortion clinics, surely that would be sufficient to protect the visitors to the clinics from feeling intimidated.

No one should be denied the right to protest peacefully when someone's life is at stake.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

Letters: It's not men against women: it's horrible people versus the rest of us

Station Hotel: a timeline

I WRITE to follow up on the recent opinion piece by Mark Smith (“The great hotel they want to destroy. We mustn’t let them”, The Herald, September 26) with a chronology of key points; 1986: Electrification of the Ayr-Glasgow Line. Power line support at the rear of the hotel which severely restricts access for hotel maintenance.

1990s: First idea and notion toward a “transport hub” which was discussed within the walls of South Ayrshire Council (SAC).

October 2008: A detailed study of 145 pages, commissioned by SAC, prepared by Nick Haynes and Associates titled “Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal” was produced with recommendations for the expansion of the protected conservation area within Ayr Central. Six separate areas for expansion of the conservation area were proposed to SAC. Only one area was rejected by SAC: the station complex.

2010: Hotel partly closed.

2012: Hotel completely closed.

2012: Hotel is registered as a building at risk by Historic Environment Scotland.

July 2013: First Dangerous Building Notice issued on the Station Hotel.

2014: Eng Huat Ung purchases the Station Hotel.

March 2018: Second Dangerous Building Notice issued by SAC on the south wing with a sole source contract awarded to specify, design and install scaffolding under “emergency measures”.

February 2020: WS Atkins feasibility study: the first public document revealing the SAC transport hub idea/plan. After a quarter of a century the plan is out in the open.

March 2020: I wrote a response to the WS Atkins study highlighting the deficiencies of the study and proposed transport hub.

2020: Network Rail (NR) spends £3 million preparing and installing extensive temporary buildings for the station staff. That £3m would have been more than sufficient money to repair and restore all listed buildings in NR ownership, including public toilets.

NR chaired the meeting between the Governance Group (Network Rail, SAC, ScotRail, HES and Transport Scotland) and Ayr Station Hotel Community Action Group, ASHCAG. During the meeting ScotRail's representative advised me that “even if I wish to wash the windows of the hotel it will be between 1am and 5am and I have to pay for their supervision”. This is what Mr Ung faced… Why were the two power line arch supports put right up against the hotel in 1986? The NR director at the meeting accepted that a cantilevered option is available for two tracks when I confronted the meeting with the electrification building standards NR works to.

Why was NR leading the governance group when it had buildings in a shoddy state of repair as proven by it moving staff into temporary buildings? May 28, 2023: Fire started by young vandals. Security measures remain unchanged; clearly ineffective.

September 14, 2023: Save Britain's Heritage (SBH) issues independent engineers report, after 10 months of waiting to gain access from SAC, saying the Station Hotel including the NR north wing could be saved for £9.2m instead of £6.6m to demolish with external funding options available.

September 25, 2023: Hotel burns down.

David Ramsay, former chair, Ayr Station Hotel Action Group, Ayr.

When it's easy to back turbines

I FEEL compelled to respond to Elspeth Russell (Letters, October 5).

There are no wind farms in "urban" areas. There are some small, single turbines or pairs of turbines on industrial sites or golf courses. Even the single turbine situated near to Castlemilk on the southside of Glasgow is in a rural setting on the Cathkin Braes. That turbine is only 125 metres high, tiny in comparison to the huge turbines of between 200m and 251m recently consented or in the planning process, all of which are in rural settings.

The only people who welcome wind farms in their area are those who are financially involved in the project such as landowners, or communities who wish to take advantage of the financial benefits on offer but which are far enough away to receive no adverse impact from the development. As Ms Russell lives in Hamilton it seems likely the latter applies. It’s easy to say you support something when it is never likely to affect you.

Aileen Jackson, Uplawmoor.

We already have high-speed trains

WITH the demise of HS2 ("Scotland’s roads set to benefit from funds from cancelled HS2", The Herald, October 5), I was checking some travel times from Edinburgh to London. At present, travelling by train from Waverley to Kings Cross can take just four hours 22 minutes. The journey from the central belt to London on HS2 would have been three hours 30 minutes, however as HS2 was to use the West Coast line into Glasgow Queen Street, I would have the additional train journey to Glasgow first: say 30 minutes by HS train. Four hours' travel time in total.

By comparison, a typical flight from Edinburgh to London Heathrow involves a 30-minute trip to the airport, at least an hour in the airport, a further hour in flight, say 15-30 minutes transferring to the Underground; and then a 45-minute trip into the city. That ends up totalling at least 3 hours 30 minutes.

However, simply comparing HS2 with the current service, the train already seems to be fairly high speed.

Brian Watt, Edinburgh.