SADLY you seem to have been largely taken in by the hysteria whipped up by an irresponsible misinformation campaign. One example is Allanah Maurer’s story of learning to swim “...in the very bay they want to develop” ("Passions running high in battle over plan to develop the Bonnie Banks", The Herald, August 17). This presumably is a reference to the lagoon created by the extraction of sand and gravel when the Loch Lomond Shores site was a quarry. The developers have no intention of preventing people from swimming in the now-clear waters of the loch. On the contrary, they have every intention of improving the quality and safety of the lagoon beach area, which, like the rest of the site, will continue to be open to the public. There is to be an indoor pool which will be open to the public too.

The truth is the application area was formerly mainly taken up by railway sidings and a caravan park and it has long been zoned for recreational and tourism development.

There is no reliable evidence the development will materially damage the woodland on the site, nor will it threaten the character or economy of Balloch or the wider special qualities of Loch Lomond or the National Park. On the contrary, it will benefit Balloch and the wider area in terms of increased economic activity and jobs, both on site and throughout the area. It will have a negligible impact on the A82, which already sees around six million vehicles a year.

It will also help to secure the future of the paddle steamer Maid of the Loch, a valuable heritage feature at this end of the loch, which, given sufficient funding and encouragement, has the potential to once again become the backbone of the mass (car-free) transport system which so successfully operated the length and breadth of Loch Lomond for the hundred years up to the middle of the 20th century. The Lomond Banks development should be welcomed on the basis that it can be a part of the solution to the National Park’s car-borne visitor management issues.

If people really want to “Save Loch Lomond”, they might be better spending their energies supporting our efforts to persuade the Government to rethink its A82 Low Road upgrade proposal which threatens 12km of Loch Lomond’s truly bonnie banks north of Tarbet; you can sign our petition at  https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE1967. Or support our efforts to persuade the authorities to improve the public realm facilities at Duck Bay which have been in a disgraceful state for many years now; or contribute to our funds which provide and service 20 litter bins in laybys along the A82 helping to keep the road verges between Arden and Tarbet litter free. You can donate online at https://www.lochlomondtrossachs.org.uk/donate.

John Urquhart, Chair, Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, Balloch.

READ MORE

Phones in schools here to stay

I FELT that the challenging discussion contained in your article regarding pupils using their mobile phones in school ("To ban or not? Why phones in schools are a talking point", The Herald, August17) opened the door to a wider debate.

Apart from the fact that many will agree that the issue has nothing to do with Holyrood and there is no need for political intervention, modern phones are often really hand-held computers and should be considered so. There was a similar period of uncertainty when calculators became affordable.

Education always seems to have some difficulty making distinctions between acquiring information, forming knowledge and understanding it. Like many pupils' phones, I have an app on my own phone which allows me to ask and instantly get answers to many items of information such as, for example, the annual rainfall in Peru. I cannot claim however, from that, to have a knowledge of Peru, only that I briefly hold certain information about its rainfall. If I need it I know where to ask.

I feel we should be encouraging our secondary senior pupils to make full use of this type of facility on their own phones as they are familiar with their operation. For too long we have hung onto examining pupils on what information they hold in their head rather than developing self-confidence in objectively understanding what information is needed in specific circumstances to build their knowledge and where it is likely to be located. I expect this requires more emphasis in schools on categorising human knowledge.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

VAT move will hit less well-off

DAVID Clark (Letters, August 20) displays an oft-held ignorance regarding the provision of independent education to pupils in Scotland. All independent schools, in order to fulfil their charitable status, provide a significant number of children with financially-assisted places ( in some cases 100% of the fees) to support children whose families would otherwise be unable to send them to these schools. Provided the pupil can show sufficient acuity to pass an entrance exam, all families have this option, irrespective of "financial circumstances".

Unfortunately, the imposition of VAT by the Labour Party renders the charitable status element redundant, and therefore an inevitable consequence as these schools look to cope with increased costs will be the forced reduction of such fee support. The more well-off families will continue to make certain sacrifices to support their children's education, while the less well-off will suffer, drop out of the independent sector, and put more pressure on already-excessively-high class sizes in the state sector.

What a pity that our new Government does not instead prioritise raising the standards of state education.

Steph Johnson, Glasgow.

Mobile phones can be a useful school toolMobile phones can be a useful school tool (Image: PA)

Is DNR akin to assisted dying?

WHILST I have an instinctive concern about the adequacy of the protocols likely to be involved if the concept of assisted dying is introduced, on thinking it through I wonder whether I am already in one variety of such a scheme?

A few years ago when my late wife and I were in our early eighties, she became very ill and repeatedly hospitalised. During this period she, and I, were asked if we were prepared to sign DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) forms. We did sign, believing we would not have been asked if it wasn’t the right thing to do in the circumstances. Subsequently she died peacefully at home without any DNR involvement.

I believe DNR is a sensible step to agree to if it is recommended in a hospital environment, but is it not in a sense a form of and thus equivalent to assisted dying?

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

Ruff justice

I HAVEN'T laughed as heartily in public as when reading Kevin McKenna's piece on the DugzApp chat group over coffee in a city-centre café ("The ruff guide to so-called 'dog-friendly' restaurants", The Herald, August 20). The wee Westie snoozing under the next table at his owner's feet was so startled by my sudden outburst that he knocked into his water bowl and doused my trainers in the process.

The perils of dog-friendly eateries indeed.

John O'Kane, Glasgow.