The article in The Herald (“District heating, not heat pumps, must be the answer”, December 6) from Common Weal at last provided some common sense into the whole discussion on the recent pronouncements from the Scottish Government minister Patrick Harvie. The proposals contained in the article at least make sense and are supported with facts and figures that are believable, as opposed to the ill thought out "demands and threats" from our Green minister.

In order to achieve the goal of decarbonisation of heat in buildings, the public need to buy into credible and cost-effective strategies, and this can only be achieved through discussion and agreement. This government has form for introducing half-baked policies with no concern about the cost to the public, but the proposals from our Green minister surely outdoes anything that has gone on before.

It's good that we have an organisation like Common Weal to provide some clarity and debunk the minister’s plans. It's clear the minister is out of his depth and does not have the skills or experience to manage and deliver a policy as crucial as this.

Douglas Eadie, Alexandria

Cost of nuclear is a matter of fact

In his response to my letter of December 5 concerning the cost of nuclear power, Ian Moir (Letters, December 8) says I am incorrect in stating that “nuclear comes at a huge cost”. That was The Herald’s headline, though I could not disagree with it. The very large sums that I quoted are a matter of fact, being what the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority spent last year and what the UK Government estimates will need to be spent on decommissioning nuclear power stations.

As for the “about £30billion” cost of building Hinkley Point C power station, the estimated cost in 2016 was £18billion and is now £32.7billion, so who knows how much the price will be by the time the power station is complete. When it reported in 2017 on the Government’s procurement of Hinkley Point C, the National Audit Office (NAO) noted that other projects to build nuclear power stations to the same design in France, Finland and China had been beset by delays and cost overruns.

However, that is not the only cost. The UK Government contracted to guarantee the operator of Hinkley Point C a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour for electricity generated over a period of 35 years. That was exceptionally generous to the operator, because it was about twice the cost of electricity when the contract was signed. The guaranteed price increases with inflation, so would be about £127 now, using CPI.

Prices have been exceptionally high recently, as a result of the war in Ukraine, and have at times exceeded the guarantee price. However, if there is a return to former price levels, the operator will be receiving substantial guarantee payments. The NAO reported that their net present value might be £30billion.

Gregory Beecroft, Skelmorlie

Read more: Cutting crew levels on our ferries is not the answer

Questions on ferry crew numbers

Can Craig Ramsay, fleet management director, CalMac Ferries Ltd (Letters, December 8) enlighten us as to why the MV Arthur started her Arran service contract with 14 crew and a limit of 220 passengers until there was a near riot when the half empty Arthur left Brodick after the Caledonian Isles suffered yet another technical issue? Shortly afterwards one additional crewmember was put aboard and the full capacity of 420 passengers was restored. The canteen was never in use, why? It seems that Arthur was set up to fail from the start but turned out to be very popular with passengers and the lack of food was not missed in return for a more reliable service.

Regarding manning, the Arran run's Caledonian Isles is limited to 740 passengers because of maintenance problems and carries a maximum 110 cars with 28 crew. The Islay service's Finlaggan carries only 550 passengers, 85 cars and 10 lorries and has a crew of 34. Yet, the St Faith operating from Portsmouth to Fishbourne with a similar capacity of 720 passengers, but 140 cars and 12 lorries taking a similar journey time has 12 crew including a restaurant.

The Ferguson built MV's Red Falcon/Osprey/Eagle operate the one-hour service between Southampton and East Cowes carrying up to 900 passengers and 220 cars with 20 crew. They have three restaurants, an executive lounge and a Sainsbury mini-market. An additional freight-only vessel of similar size to the main car ferries runs with only seven crew.

Bear in mind that the Solent is full of navigational hazards such as supertankers, ultra large containerships, 37 knot catamaran ferries, hovercraft on trials, naval ships, a large number of leisure craft in narrow buoyed channels with right angle turns in ferocious tides. The skill required by the crews far outweigh that in the open waters of the West Coast of Scotland and last the entire journey.

As the fleet management director of CalMac Ferries has put his head above the parapet, he might want to justify the Dunoon/Gourock passenger service that absorbs eyewatering subsidies from the Scottish Government? The CalMac Dunoon terminal was shut down for days during Storm Babet whilst Western Ferries was only shut down for a matter of hours and handled the CalMac replacement coach service for passengers who could not access CalMac services. I understand that this was in part due to the MCA restrictions put on the vessels regarding operating in anything but ideal weather. Why is the CalMac service needed when Western Ferries can supply a coach route extending stops beyond the passenger terminals? Think of the positive effect on CalMac's bottom line of dropping this service and the money that the Scottish Government could put towards reducing their fiscal black hole.

Peter Wright, West Kilbride

Read more: Let's have an award for decency in politics in honour of Lord James

Good memories of a happy school

When I read Neil Mackay's column (“Loretto ex-pupil: I was in flight mode. Now I'm in fight mode”, The Herald, December 7), I found it hard to believe that he was talking about my former school. I do have great sympathy with Angus Bell and I abhor the treatment he suffered, but I fear that Mr Mackay portrays this behaviour as an ongoing issue.

I attended the school more recently than Mr Bell and will therefore never be able to pass any judgement on the behaviour of the boys in the 90s, but I can categorically say that Loretto today is a welcoming, happy place of which I have (mostly) good memories.

I will concede that, as with any school, there are cases of teenage boys doing teenage-boy-things, but with the opportunities offered to vent frustration and anger on the sports pitches, and the strict (often, in my opinion: harsh) discipline of the staff, there was never anything close to the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse faced by some pupils in the past.

I am fully aware that there are some who will (and probably are) accusing me of (to use Mr Mackay's words) being "in a cult". A claim which I will, naturally, refute; Loretto School, during my time, was only ever a place where pupils are encouraged to pursue different challenges and paths whilst being treated with respect and support from those around them. Free from abuse, free from "fagging," free from PTSD.

Hugh Mulvihill, Edinburgh