YOU report that Glasgow City Council is to set up a team examining the case for introducing a tourist tax for visitors ("Glasgow to consider tourist tax", The Herald, August 27). While there are some who think this would put off visitors, the evidence from other places suggests otherwise.

In Amsterdam, for example, the tourist tax is 12.5% of accommodation costs. In addition to this, it also costs to get into the museums. The Rijksmuseum costs €22.50, Anne Frank's house costs €16, and the Van Gogh Museum costs €22. The list goes on. Glasgow's museums run by Glasgow City Council are free. Examples of these world-famous free museums are Kelvingrove Art Gallery, The Gallery of Modern Art, St Mungo Museum of Religious Art, Riverside Museum, The Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum, and The Burrell Collection.

I suggest that a Glasgow tourist tax is well overdue since there are so many free museums and galleries to visit. Amsterdam locals complain about the number of tourists so it appears that a 12.5% tourist tax is not putting off very many visitors. I think Glasgow should go for a tourist tax as soon as possible since the benefits are so visible.

Colin Gunn, Glasgow.

Organised chaos restored

I MARVEL at the degree to which cinemagoers seem impressed by present-day effects, all of which are pathetically primitive in comparison with the stunningly spectacular 3-D movies of the early 1950s. Contrary to what callow modern writers often suppose, these used diagonally-opposed polarising axes, not bi-coloured filters as in comic book illustrations of the time.

Similarly I sympathise with Mark Smith ("Why does Glasgow have a problem with traffic lights?", The Herald, August 26) in his plea for a reversion to sophisticated old traffic lights of the 1940s, in which electro-pneumatic road sensors reacted to actual conditions, promptly turning lights to green if the way was clear.

The cheaper, simple and simplistic fixed-time system being well established, I well remember when, in the 1990s, at the bottleneck at Welsh Row in Nantwich, Cheshire, the traffic lights were disused while new ones were installed. The traffic flowed perfectly because most drivers exercised courtesy and common sense.

Was the lesson learned? Of course not. The new lights having been installed, chaos was restored, no doubt to the delight of the authorities who cheerfully countenance any amount of mayhem provided that it harmonises with the modern way of doing things.

Common sense and courtesy? Such things have no place in the modern world. If they cost nothing that must be what they're worth.

Robin Dow, Rothesay.

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A plan for the A96

I NOTE Kathleen Nutt's front-page report ("Plans to dual notorious A96 under threat due to climate plan", The Herald, August 29). Slinging bridges across the narrow Black Isle firths would be a piece of cake, cutting some 15 miles off the Nairn-Invergordon drive and relieving the A96 between Inverness and Nairn. Cash saved by not dualling all of that section could contribute to the bridges' construction.

George Morton, Rosyth.

Breaking point for deposit scheme

IN theory John Crawford's idea (Letters, August 26) of a Deposit Return Scheme replacement through reimbursement via QR codes would be perfectly feasible; unfortunately in practice it would not work. OK it might work for cans, but not for glass bottles. These are liable to break when being dropped into roadside receptacles, and even more so when the receptacles are then emptied out.

QR codes cannot be read on broken bits of glass, which may have bits of the code on two or three separate pieces.

George Smith, Clydebank.

Allsopp's outburst

TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp is reported as becoming extremely annoyed by the intrusion of local social services inquiring into the inter-railing European holiday of her 15-year-old son and a friend ("Angry Allsopp contacted by social services", The Herald August 26). She bemoans such action as "extraordinary" and that she has been in no way "neglectful".

Perhaps not. However, had the social services not responded to the intimation of concern, that department would be openly castigated for being neglectful. To that end I would suggest Ms Allsopp is over-zealous in her condemnation of social services. Perhaps one word sums up her outburst: extraordinary.

Allan C Steele, Giffnock.

Kirstie AllsoppKirstie Allsopp (Image: PA)

A Scots champion of Ukraine

I NOTE with interest your article on Ukrainian celebrations in Edinburgh ("Ukrainian community gather to celebrate freedom", The Herald, August 24). In 1962, my late husband Rennie McOwan was editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer. He was aware that the Ukrainian community in Edinburgh wanted their own church, and he used the SCO to garner support for this. Rennie was greatly honoured to receive a framed icon of Our Lady of Vladimir with the inscription "Pray for the Persecuted Church of Silence". And on the back is written "To Rennie McOwan as a token of profound gratitude and deep appreciation for his helpful interest of the Ukrainian exiles' efforts for the provision of their own church in Edinburgh".

Rennie would go on to interview the renowned Ukrainian prelate Cardinal Josyf Slipyj for BBC radio shortly after the Cardinal’s release after 18 years in a Siberian prison camp as a result of pressure from Pope John XXIII and President Kennedy.

Ukraine at this time was part of the USSR and there was extreme religious intolerance.

As a writer and journalist Rennie contributed regularly to The Herald on religious matters and the great outdoors.

Agnes McOwan, Stirling.

Qualified response

MAVEN Capital Partners report the appointment of two qualified chartered accountants ("Private equity player boosts Scottish investment team with key hires", The Herald, August 28). There is no such person as an unqualified chartered accountant, so why use three words when two will do?

I did have a client who referred to a defrocked accountant, but understand that such a description is truly applicable to those of an ecclesiastical bent.

David Miller, CA, Milngavie.