Glasgow needs this park much more than yet more flats

Above all it fails to recognise that buildings alone do not make a community. Her central argument is: we need more people to live in the city centre so let’s just put up more blocks of flats.

Human beings need much more, including green spaces of which there is not one in Merchant City. Where are the play parks for children, or are we just providing accommodation for professional singles or couples who can afford it?

In a 2022 survey by scientists in the UK and Australia, Glasgow came bottom of a list of the "green" credentials of 58 municipalities in England, Wales and Scotland.

The local community want the site to be a haven of peace and relaxation to promote mental and physical health and wellbeing, and add splashes of nature to a vibrant but otherwise green-free part of Glasgow.

Opposition to the flats was not restricted to MCTCC. A total of 143 objectors were listed on the Glasgow City Council (GCC) online portal (22/01225/FUL). Contrary to Scottish Government guidance, the local community was not consulted by GCC on its sale of the land.

Objectors also sought to protect the world-famous mural of wild animals, photographed daily by visitors, major sections of which will be hidden and the remainder admired by far fewer people.

Fewer trees are to be planted in the proposed courtyard than currently there. They are unlikely to flourish, probably replaced not by the present gorgeous cherry blossoms but by birches taking years to mature and unlikely to be replaced if they fail after five years.

Ms MacWhirter mentions various alternative green spaces, one at the top of a street with an average gradient of 14%. What about the elderly and less mobile? Do they not matter?

One of her other suggestions is the Ramshorn Graveyard, but this is frequented by drug addicts.

She claims local businesses are in trouble. On the contrary: businesses surrounding the site are thriving. None of them wants the site built upon.

Ms MacWhirter is “under no illusion these flats will be affordable”. She underlines another serious deficiency in the heart of Glasgow - a lack of social housing - yet another issue on which we are campaigning.

The Scottish ministers’ decision to allow the development to go ahead has been deferred for at least six months. Until then the community council will continue to lobby for the creation of "Merchant City Park" via its website (mctcc.scot) and other means.

Scott Thornton, Secretary and Vice-Chair, Merchant City and Trongate Community Council, Glasgow.

READ MORE: Glasgow doesn’t need another park, nimbys, it needs people

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Carrying the pensions can

ROZ Foyer ("All of us, even Presidents, deserve a good retirement", The Herald, July 29) sets out the requirement for a graceful retirement: “a pension that reflects their years of service to our workforce”, but glosses over how this is paid for. She says to merely “ensure those higher earners pay their fair share of tax”, focusing the burden on those with high incomes, not those with high wealth or consumption.

Pensions are merely a device to allocate a share of the output of the economy to people that are not producing it. Each of the triple lock, the increase in life expectancy, and the decline in birth rates allocates a larger share to the elderly, and a smaller share to workers. A higher pension age, or means testing, reduces that share. Working people always need to “carry the can for economic decisions made by politicians”, but we don’t carry it for our pension and retirement rights, we carry it for those that have already retired. Our pension and retirement rights are in turn imposed on future workers, and risk being rejected by them.

We now have two distinct classes of pensioners. Those with defined benefit pensions, guaranteed regardless of the state of the economy, and those with defined contribution pensions, dependent on stock market returns. Inevitably, one will be doing better than the other at any given time, depending on if the stock market has exceeded the guarantee. Defined benefit pensions not provided by the state simply go bust when the stock market does badly, so have practically disappeared for private sector employees. Notably, there is no company willing to sell one to individuals. All personal pensions should be defined contribution, and then we could compare salaries sensibly between the public and private sectors. And then it will be clear that pensions cannot guarantee us a share of the future economy, only a larger share than other pensioners.

Alan Ritchie, Glasgow.

There are two distinct classes of pensioners (Image: PA)

Capital error

IN response to Paul McPhail's ill-informed rant (Letters, August), the death penalty is solely about vengeance and retribution and as such is morally repugnant. There is no evidence to support the view that it is a deterrent, year on year American research shows that states which do not have the death penalty have lower murder rates than those who do.

Capital punishment is irreversible; miscarriages of justice happen, viz the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. Mr McPhail provides no evidence to support his views.

Cathy Baird, Dunipace.

Double dilemma

ALLAN C Steele (Letters, August 1) writes well about contemporary conversation.

During a recent hospital visit my wife asked whether information had been passed to another member of staff. " I'll double double check" was the nurse's response.

Unwilling to sully a satisfactory consultation, I did not ask whether that meant that the nurse would check thrice, twice or maybe only once.

David Miller, Milngavie.

I am not liking

I THOUGHT we had lost the 'ings. No-one is "sitting". They are always "sat". Instead of "standing", we are "stood". It grates every time I hear it.

Fear not. The 'ings are not abolished, they have just moved to daft modernisms like "I am loving", "I am liking" etc. Maybe when teachers are stood in English class and pupils are sat avidly listening, they should get the grammar right. I am liking that idea.

D Gilchrist, Paisley.