• Culter Community Council

• Open Letter from Mr Richard Phethean, Beannachar,Banchory-Devenick

CULTER COMMUNITY COUNCIL

ABERDEEN WESTERN PERIPHERAL ROUTE

The Evening Express is conducting an internet poll about the proposed Western Peripheral Route (WPR). Most votes are being given for the route just west of Culter, which would go to either Charlestown or Stonehaven. Yet this route is the least favoured by the engineers. Why the difference?

The Camphill Community offer an explanation. They have issued publicity which implores voters to choose a route remote from any of their estates, i.e. the Culter route, and to use computer trickery (deleting "cookies") to get multiple votes.

It is therefore vital that the opinions of Culter folk about the WPR are heard.

There are several reasons for opposing the Culter route:

• All traffic from Cults, Bieldside and Milltimber to the WPR would drive through the heart of Culter to a new junction just west of Borsalino.

• The WPR would cross the Culter Burn and Malcolm Road, so the west side of Culter would suffer the continual roar of traffic.

• Harmful effects for special needs children at Linn Moor School and at Easter Anguston Farm are likely to exceed these for Camphill communities an alternative routes.

• Peterculter Golf Course would be virtually destroyed.

• The road would pass through or near several beautiful areas designated as Special Wildlife Sites by Aberdeen City Council. They are at the golf course, the Mill Dam, Leuchar Burn, and South Lasts.

• It would combine least traffic benefit with greatest construction cost.

The Scottish Executive is responsible for deciding where to build the WPR. It therefore has a commitment to consider each and every comment made by the people of Culter.

If the future of Culter is important to you we urge that you write (once only!) to:

Mrs Catherine Swanney
Scottish Executive
2-D
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
(catherine.swanney@scotland.gsi.gov.uk)

For more information, visit Culter Library or www.awpr.co.uk.

The closing date for comments is Friday 29 April 2005.

Open Letter from Mr Richard Phethean, Beannachar,Banchory-Devenick

Firstly, I wish to say that I was saddened that the Culter Community Council has put out a notice that misinterprets the intentions that I expressed in a personal e-mail to my colleagues and friends. This is further compounded by the article in Thursday’s Evening Express. I would, however, wish to apologise for any upset I have caused.

You state that the Camphill Community has issued publicity to implore voters to choose a route remote from any of their estates i.e. the Culter route, and to use computer trickery (deleting cookies) to get multiple votes. This contains a number of inaccuracies and gives people a bad impression of Camphill. I would have been happier if someone from the Council had spoken to me before putting out this information.

1. This was not issued by Camphill, so that implication is inaccurate. I acted as an individual who happens to live in a Camphill place. I disagree that an e-mail sent from an individual to some colleagues qualifies as “Camphill publicity”. I did not act on behalf of any Camphill Community or the “Save Camphill” campaign, but as an individual.

2. You imply that I implored voters to use computer trickery to get multiple votes. In fact I only gave information about how cookies (electronic code issued by certain websites) affect the voting process and made no suggestions about how such information should be used. I have the understanding that a “vote” or a “poll” implies that each person should have equal ability to cast a vote. However, the Evening Express has arranged its voting system so that on most computers (usually set to accept cookies) only one vote per computer is possible. This seems unfair to communities that have only one computer but many people wishing to vote. However, many people choose to configure their computer to reject cookies, and these people would have no hindrance in allowing a vote for each member of their household.

I now know for a fact that the Evening Express’s IT department has been advising people how to place multiple votes for households who have more people than computers. So, if the information I shared with my friends and colleagues achieves the
same result as that given out by the Evening Express themselves, what wrong have I done?

However, I do completely sympathise with your objection to the Culter route, especially as it would impinge on Culter, its residents as well as the children in Linn Moor and people at Easter Anguston. What can we do? Every proposed route will have harmful effects on someone. I would find it very sad indeed if Camphill and Culter Community would work against each other. We are both against the road going near our communities for very similar reasons.

I also wonder how much influence the Evening Express Poll will have on the decision-making process. As we have seen, it is unfair and impossible to control how votes are made. Anyway it seems it will take much more than an Evening Express poll to change the planners’ thinking.

Richard Phethean
 

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