YOUR VIEWS: Aviemore tourist information centre is a real asset to the area
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I see if has been another week or two with bad news for the strath with Aviemore visitor centre - which is something of a jewel in the tourism crown in the village - to be shut down.
What insane leadership thinking is involved here?
Those deciding we can do without the centre will be left in their functions no doubt, and continue to add zero value to the tourist industry in the strath after getting rid of the very folk who have provided excellent service all the time I’ve lived in Aviemore.
Not only that but they will hire some nerds with zero business experience who they are unable to converse with as they oversee the online web pages and apps being created that folk will have to rely on.
The likelihood is these options will be a pretty iffy mix of probably awful solutions for the very folk who have relied on to get decent help and advice from, namely the older folk who use the visitor centre - and they are not the only ones who rely on the service.
They may even now be thinking AI will sort out their lack of EI and IQ!
This kind of inane short term thinking is doing its best to destroy a good thing.
I doubt there is not a hint of holistic thinking beyond the rationale for this decision.
I suspect these same people would not even be allowed to man a barbecue stand during the Harley Davidson weekend in August.
Almost all the advances or changes I’ve seen during my time in Aviemore have had us go backward in some way, whether it is the loss of the village hall, decrease in hospital beds in the strath followed by a stop to all NHS capital investment - most likely following advice from the string of consultants given while billing for their time.
I would have been rather happy to see the strath move forward in meaningful ways during all this time but see the myriad of invested interests as being mostly counter productive and at times somewhat destructive in nature.
I wonder if I’ll see any change for the better with regards to the long term in the time I will be around.
But I suspect I’ll just continue to see the bureaucrats and vested financial interests see our children and grandchildren having to take on ever higher debts and taxes dumped on their shoulders through the powers-that-bes’ total inability to take a long term view and seeming refusal to adhere to anything but short term thinking.
Has no one the courage to stand up to stupid ideas anymore? Do we only go along with advice meant to make our futures grimmer?
Why do we even believe these consultants who move from uni to consultancy with virtually no real world experience.
I know of a local request made during an open day on the A9 dualling that never made any difference as it never saw the light of day and has possibly been as the root of some awful consequences.
Paul Aarden
Aviemore.
* * *
Local knowledge is the very best kind
The beautiful, world-famous bridge, a very strong tourist attraction at Craigellachie, designed by Thomas Telford, the great Scots genius of civil engineering, was built 15 years before the notorious "Muckle Spate" of 1829.
That flood caused vast damage in Scotland.
Because Telford had shrewedly sought local advice about the details of his original design, he had it altered to raise its height above the River Spey by five metres, eventually saving this magnificent bridge from destruction by the flood water.
Local knowledge and advice supplements and can trump information from today's impersonal internet sources.
That is a vital lesson for those in charge of our national tourism authorities: by the new policy (Strathy, 28th March) of closing local TICs, their ability to impart local knowledge and friendly, welcoming, informative hospitality would be lost.
The Scottish tourist authorities should think again.
They really must maintain the TICs' vital contribution to tourism, one of our most important and lucrative industries.
Charles Wardrop
Viewlands Rd West
Perth.
* * *
The once mutual act of union is definitely broken
People of Scotland know the history of your country which has been systematically denied to you.
It is the story that links the past, present and future and which will power the independence movement to victory.
From Scotland’s steadfast resistance to remain a sovereign independent nation, against centuries of English aggression, to the shady politics of the last 40 years and the disdain in which Westminster holds Scotland, the once mutual act of union is definitely broken.
Although Westminster maintains that Scotland is hugely subsidised and a drain on the UK economy, why is it so desperate to keep Scotland and the union in tact?
Surely it can’t be out of a caring generosity or even the English obsession to keep the post imperial title of Great Britain.
No, it is purely because of financial factors extremely favourable to London.
The so called poverty stricken part of North Britain, that is Scotland, is a rich well endowed region producing many economic benefits, ranging from food and drink to renewable energy including declining North Sea oil and gas, the benefits of which pour into Westminster’s treasury every year.
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore.
* * *
Westminster andidate has an odd selection of issues
I have read with interest the publicity recently circulated by Kathleen Robertson, the Tory candidate for Moray West, Nairn, and Strathspey.
It does feature an odd selection of topics!
Prominent are our local health services and the dualling of the A9 and A96. Important though these are, they are the business of the Scottish Government, not Westminster, for which Ms Robertson is standing.
Also mentioned is the importance of the whisky industry for which Ms Robertson pledges to be 'a very loud supporter'. With the best will in the world, she cannot offer a louder voice than Douglas Ross but his efforts to influence the recent budget were totally ineffective!
Even more important. however, are the omissions. The number of food banks has ballooned in recent years yet there is no mention of addressing our increasing inequality.
There is a climate emergency - yet nothing at all about that. The national finances are catastrophic but never a mention.
Will all the candidates for the general election please let us know their - and their parties - position on the Westminster issues that matter.
Jim MacEwan
Nethy Bridge.
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Correspondent is on futile mission trying to convince folk climate change is a myth
When I come to our lodge in Dalraddy Holiday park from home in Perth, buying the Herald is one of the first things I do so that I can catch up with what’s happening locally, particularly with news of Newtonmore shinty!
Another predictable contribution comes from a familiar scribe from Perth, Mr Charles Wardrop, who seems to have a mission, long abandoned by most, to convince us that climate change is a myth, presumably put forward by paranoid environmentalists and wrong-thinking scientists.
It’s almost quaint, rather old-fashioned and certainly quixotic, to rail against the changing modern world, and against the mountain of evidence demonstrating our changing climate and the reasons for it.
Averting eyes from a changing world, like Don Quixote, Mr Wardrop chooses to look back nostalgically on the halcyon days of yore, where we exploited every natural resource we could get our hands on, leaving more mess for future generations to clear up.
Andrew Turnbull
Perth.
