Dear Spurtle,

You report in the October issue (p.1) that Police followed a protestor who had held up a blank placard at the royal funeral procession, in order to 'prevent possible disorder'.

The suggestion that this was a potential Everard incident seems extreme; was this not simply the latest incident in a long line of Police mis-steps which only show how difficult they find it to police freedom of expression with anything approaching nuance?  

What's interesting is that, previously, the Police seemed to have been recruited into the culture wars to serve solely on the side of the woke and the perenially-offended. The legal action against the owner of a Nazi-saluting dog; the recording of a 'non-crime hate incident' against the Home Secretary in 2017; Police attendance at a man's workplace to 'check his thinking' after a poor joke on Twitter; last week's threat that 'misgendering' a convicted paedophile who now identifies as a woman would be treated as a hate crime - are among many examples. The to-do around funeral placards seems like a long-awaited taste of the same medicine.  

Perhaps now we can all agree that policing potential thought-crimes of whatever political hue (or indeed simple rudeness and bad behaviour) is no role for the Police.

Caroline Roussot

Dear Spurtle,

I’m writing to report a mysterious occurrence on Brandon Terrace.

I'm a long-time resident of this locale and, for the last 20 years or so, have had a resident’s parking permit for Zone 6.

When the lockdown liberalisation of parking controls came to an end, Brandon Terrace’s mix of parking-permit and pay-and-display spaces were unified into combined places where anyone could park as long as they had either a permit or a ticket. They even changed the signs to reflect this change, and the space on the opposite side to the shops and tenements, between the bus stop and the traffic lights, had ta new sign put up in June 2021 (see below).

Having happily parked there ever since, I was surprised to find a parking ticket on the car last week. Further investigation showed that, in a mysterious turn of events, the sign has transformed itself and now states that it is in Zone 5a (see below).  

Having appealed the ticket, I’m waiting to hear back, but I’m mystified how it can be possible for the Council to have made this change apparently without any notice.

Does this mean that the parking space has been in a strange state of seeming to be one thing while actually being another and its identity crisis has now been resolved?

Is it facing an existential crisis, unable to know definitively which zone it belongs in, or is it perhaps a liminal parking space?

Most importantly, from a practical point of view, which sign is right?  

Nicholas Bone

Brandon Terrace

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Dear Spurtle, 

The improvements to the streetscape in Elm Row have been going on for the best part of two years, which is an inordinate amount of time to complete a small 'legacy improvement project' as a result of the Tram extension works. Access to Montgomery Street from Leith Walk has been closed for a similar period of time.

The businesses trading in Elm Row have endured this disgusting, dirty, eyesore for far too long. Elm Row businesses have also faced difficult economic conditions throughout this two-year period (initially with the Covid 19 pandemic) and are, no doubt, continuing to suffer a drop in takings with the cost-of-living crisis not to mention the streetscape improvement works.

Whenever one passes Elm Row, one can see that there is no evidence of work taking place for eight hours every day; day in, day out. It is high time the City Council ensured that the eyesore which has existed at Elm Row for far too long is brought to a conclusion.

The City Council should also pay more attention to its economic development remit and never allow a sloppy situation like this to recur anywhere in the City; especially where businesses, not the Council, pay the price. 

I am not sure that a Spurtle will do the trick - a rocket might expedite matters. One way or another, the project team and the City Council need to get a spurt on. 

Shane Carter

East Claremont Street