YOUR VIEW: A bridge too far for Maryhill

I HAD to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1 when I read about the new statue and £4million footbridge planned for the Forth and Clyde Canal at Stockingfield Junction.

I HAD to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1 when I read about the new statue and £4million footbridge planned for the Forth and Clyde Canal at Stockingfield Junction.

When are the arts' brigade going to consult the people of Maryhill over what they want?

There is no doubt that the regeneration of the canal is long overdue, but what planet do the people behind these grandiose ideas live on?

If, as stated, the statue is meant to represent the engineering, boat building and other historic industries of Maryhill, then why not build it where those industries actually existed, that being down the Butney' - The Botany - and not on the boundary with Ruchill.

There is no need for a bridge at Stockingfield Junction. This money should have been used to help refurbish Maryhill Burgh Halls or to restore the 218-year-old Kelvin Aqueduct, once described as the eighth wonder of the world', which British Waterways have igonored for years.

LEW MELVIN, Maryhill

Where are all the loos?

THE Merchant City Festival was a great day out but perhaps someone at the council can explain why there are so few benches or public toilets in the area?

I had three golden oldies with me and to get a rest or visit the loo, we had to go into a pub.

Later, when we had to find a toilet, the only one available was up two flights of stairs in the old Fruit Market; a definite no-no for my auld yins.

The Wilson Street public toilets have been closed for years, and now I hear that the ones in Sauchiehall Street are also to close.

We were the European City of Culture, and last time I looked this was the 21st Century.

What tourists make of our city I don't know. Every other major city seems to be able to maintain a network of public toilets. Where are ours?

And while I'm at it, could someone tell me where the benches that used to sit outside Primark/Debenhams have gone? They vanished last Christmas and have not been replaced.

Name and address supplied

A site for sore eyes?

IF Glasgow already has 920 empty and rundown sites (Evening Times, October 3), why do we still appear to be building new houses and offices on greenfield land?

Across the city, bits are being clipped off parks, football grounds etc. Why not leave that land alone and concentrate on developing these derelict sites for productive use?

On the Southside, some derelict sites have been allowed to lie vacant for years while, elsewhere in the area, serviceable buildings have been cleared to make way for rows and rows of new flats, many of which appear to be lying empty.

Surely the Government can come up with some sort of tax regime where it benefits developers to regenerate brownfield land and leave pleasant open spaces alone for us all to enjoy.

KEN GALLOWAY, Via e-mail

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