GOOD to see that at long last Shawlands shopping arcade is to get a revamp.

I think we should be concentrating on small shopping centres at the heart of communities.

If we have out of town centres, I feel we lose the sense of community.

What is wrong with shopping on your doorstep and trying to help local traders.

C Gentles, Govan

SADDENING to see mindless vandals graffitied over a mural in Garnethilll dedicated to a local community activist Betty Brown. Their senseless act will sink in as they mature and look back on what most feel is a waste of precious time and effort to deface the look of the area. If Betty were still around I am sure she would challenge the vandals to desist from their "scrawls on the walls" and look to the beauty of art murals which have been painted across Glasgow.

Bill Love

Mosspark, via email

REFERRING to your reader's confusion regarding bus lanes and bus gates, (Gateway confusion), you are on a hiding to nothing with the way the council and it's wardens treat any grievance against them.

My issue came when I pulled into a marked bay to drop a passenger off. After doing so, my mobile phone rang which I answered. Suddenly a warden appeared and slapped a ticket on my windscreen. When I questioned his reasons he said he saw me move from the passengers seat into the drivers seat? This was an outright lie. Dumbfounded, I explained I had a witness (my passenger who left the vehicle) who would testify he was the passenger in the vehicle at all times. The warden's response to me was to take my complaint up with Glasgow City Council. Needless to say I did and six months down the line, and numerous letters later, I've had to fork out £170 for a "final demand" from debt collectors. The moral of the story is you just can't win against them.

John Toffolo, posted online

REGARDS controversial council spin-off firm City Building dismantled to save 1000-plus jobs this all sounds a bit odd. I wonder if public services contracts not having to go out to tender is entirely legal. Will this move, while protecting 1,000 jobs, represent value for money for the tax payers of Glasgow for the next 20 years?

It will be interesting to see if any of the companies expected to tender for the contract make a legal challenge.

Martin Grant, posted online