The NC500 has been a disaster for the Highlands

Some local business people are doing well, but the population is shrinking and many businesses are reduced or no longer exist. Housing is a huge problem, holiday homes are often owned by investors from afar, young families are drifting away. Also many have no desire to work in the hospitality industry because of pay and prospects.

I think Alan might have been listening to the promoters of the dreaded route, they make a profit through marketing and they like to spin a line about how wonderful it all is and how they are saving the Highlands. From my viewpoint they are doing precisely the opposite, they are bringing destruction and grief. They are taking something that was sustainable and wrecking it. They thought they had found a goose that would lay a golden egg, but the goose is dying.

I would recommend a more intensive visit, a fact-finding mission rather than a cursory glance.

Susan Black, Rhiconich, Sutherland.

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Impossible task for architects

AS a retired architect I read the Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report with interest. However I confess to being a bit surprised at Sir Martin Moore-Bicke’s recommendations regarding the future role of architects in assessing products and specifications.

He suggests having a principal within a practice who will have liability for ensuring compliance with all relevant standards. But how can one individual be held responsible for the output of other employees, especially when they may be spread across the country in different offices? Further, how do you decide whether that individual is competent to, for example, analyse manufacturer’s fire tests when that is not part of an architect’s training? That action would normally fall to a fire engineer.

Moreover most professional indemnity insurers are averse to architects commenting in areas outwith their recognised field of competence because it can attract a claim for associated liability. And without insurance you can’t practice.

Companies like Cellotex go to great lengths to avoid publishing risks associated with their products. For instance, when the European Commission proposed performance certificates for insulation products the insulation companies successfully argued that the certificate should only concern itself with the product’s performance as an insulant. Accordingly Cellotex’s Declaration of Performance for their RS5000 foam states "no performance determined" under the categories “Release of Dangerous Substances” and “Reaction to Fire”. The architect therefore has no way of establishing how lethal this product is in a fire.

Cellotex themselves have responded to the final report by advising that they will review their marketing processes as a consequence of Sir Martin’s criticism. I find that interesting because 30 years ago I wrote and complained to Cellotex after they advertised their foam as being "self-extinguishing" and "fire-resisting" (a contradiction in itself).

This was after their rep had demonstrated it to me for a major project I was working on. The fire-resisting bit turned out to be the aluminium foil face and not the foam. Whilst the latter did indeed self-extinguish that was only if the flame was static. When I moved the flame towards the foam (as would happen in an expanding fire) it burnt continuously.

What Sir Martin doesn’t explain is how architects are supposed to work out when the information being supplied to them is bogus. Nor does he explain how we are expected to somehow absorb this additional workload (and cost) in a climate of ever-reducing fee scales and staff redundancies.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk.

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Yet more greenwashing

ANOTHER year, and another round of greenwashing from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). Your article ("Target to reduce emissions in North Sea fields is 'within reach'',The Herald, September 10) suggests that the North Sea oil and gas industry is cleaning up its act. This is simply not true. The reduction in emissions quoted over the past few years exactly matches the collapse in production. The less oil and gas produced, the less carbon is emitted. The industry has done precisely nothing about emissions.

The NSTA goes on to confidently predict further dramatic reductions into the future, including net zero by 2050, 90% reduction by 2040 and 50% by 2030. This should give oil and gas workers pause for thought. Their industry is shrinking into oblivion; time to start retraining now.

Finally, a note to your picture desk. The photo of Brent field is iconic but irrelevant. The entire field stopped production in 2021.

Jeff Rogers, Banchory.

First class or not?

AROUND 4.15pm on Thursday, August 29, I posted a card (with a first class stamp) in the postbox situated at our local sorting office.

This was to a local address and the said card was eventually delivered on Wednesday, September 4.

Taking six days to arrive is not a first class service.

Jean Christie, Kirkintilloch.

Steve Clarke (Image: PA)

The results business

IT is difficult to know if Steve Clarke is daft or thinks we are. Following Scotland's latest defeat, he stated: "There are lots of positives if you ignore the results."

Managing Scotland must be unique, where you could say such a thing and keep your job.

David Hay, Minard.