WE read your article “Scots are working miracles in their local communities” with interest (Lesley Riddoch, The National September 21). Linwood is also creating a wave of change and we are on the brink of completing a funding package of £2.6 million to build community facilities.

This will include an indoor and an outdoor children’s nursery, cafe, 3G football pitch, changing rooms, flexible space area, a grocery shop, sensory garden and a large hall, which supports the financial sustainability of the project.

Why has this worked in Linwood? Because it has be led by local people who share the same vision to make Linwood a better place to live.

All of the above has been achieved with very few resources. Two employees and a group of determined, passionate and tenacious women have led the way. We too did not need the huge expense of a charrette. We carried out our own and developed the Linwood Community Action Plan which was and continues to be supported by 5000 people who have attended nine community consultation events of the past eight years. Linwood Community Development Trust has had the community with us all the way with this project.

The community never gave up even though we were against all the odds with the bureaucrats over the past eight years. The journey has not been an easy one and has felt like rolling jelly up a hill. Here is a link to our recent Facebook post which demonstrates the huge support by the people of Linwood who have been integral in the plans for this future development: bit.ly/LinwoodCommunity
Kirsty Flannigan
Linwood Community Development Trust

I, TOGETHER with other SNP members including the late Maggie Bain, went to Barcelona to support the Catalans at the first free Spanish elections in 1977, two years after Franco’s death. We were met warmly by the then Catalan leader, Jordi Pujol, who became the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya for 23 years. Before then, he regularly spoke at Bannockburn rallies. By now arresting people to stop a free referendum from taking place, the Rajoy Spanish Government is returning to its Francoist roots.
Duncan MacLaren
Glasgow

ONCE more the old story that North Sea oil will run out soon has resurfaced. This has happened with regularity over the last 40-odd years, usually when an election is in the offing. Anyone know the date for the election? Maybe the originators of the story? Are the Norwegians aware of this or does it just apply to Scotland? It reminds me of the “incendiary device” that regularly turned up in prominent Unionists’ mail just before an election, a book of matches and a capsule of lighter fuel. Perhaps they both come from the same source.
Drew Reid
Carronshore, Falkirk

YOUR headline, Labour closes ranks over Sarwar pay scandal (The National, September 21) should have been: “Labour closes down freedom of speech!”The debacle over Kezia Dugdale’s resignation and the attempt to find a successor makes depressing reading. No matter which of the candidates receives the most votes in the forthcoming ballot, the winner will be the SNP.
Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

I PERSONALLY don’t see the problem with Anas Sarwar becoming leader. He has the perfect credentials. He sends his children to private school. The family business apparently does not pay the living wage. I would say he is the perfect choice to lead the Scottish branch, the Scottish branch of the Tory Party that is.
Hector Maclean
Glasgow

AS I watched some of the Holyrood income tax debate the other day, I noticed some positive attempts to be flexible in both outcomes, and the process of getting there. The key highlights for me, were the referencing of the cumulative current joint effects of NI/income tax, and what levels we should seek in the future, and how to set income tax bands now, in anticipation of future joined up with NI/income tax, which could vary in small band increments of two per cent, say starting at say 20 per cent and leading to 50 per cent.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

OVER the last few days we have been kept informed by our wonderful media circus of the great travels of our beloved Prime Minister and her endless entourage, including a selection of Cabinet nonentities, while she gave a selection of Johnny Foreigners around the globe the benefit of her wisdom.

The big question however is – how much has all this worldwide junketing cost us, the taxpayer? This must have been one of the most useless expenditures ever made in the name of our country, and we deserve to have the costs revealed.
George M Mitchell
Sheriffmuir, Dunblane

APART from the mandatory reporting of FMQs and sport, the BBC Scotland Radio midday news programme seems far more interested in what is going on outside Scotland.

There is obviously the belief that the MSM is all part of the cringe culture but for me The National stands head and shoulders above other news outlets in not promoting the cringe and in devoting the level of content and interest in Scottish affairs to make it justifiably and recognisably a Scottish perspective but still with space for coverage of UK and international stories.
Peter Gorrie
Edinburgh