IS it not time that the decision on the potential passenger growth of air travel was taken on the basis what is best for Scotland as a whole? The expansion plans of individual airport owners should not be taken in isolation of those nearby residents on the ground and the infrastructure necessary to service access to Scotland's airports.

The case for Edinburgh paths (“Plea to airport as review of flight paths is put on hold”, The Herald, September 23) should not be judged solely on the needs of global infrastructure partners, but on Scotland's economic requirements in the transport of people and goods.

As a small northern European country we are sufficient in airport numbers but with Glasgow and Edinburgh airports both located within comparatively crowded corridors, would not Prestwick Airport be the best location for a comparatively noise-free environment with both its landward and seaward flight paths?

Although Prestwick has the only direct rail link passenger station in Scotland, all it requires is an improvement to the Glasgow Crossrail to connect the whole Scotland network and a doubling of the Kilmarnock rail line which would provide services to the north of England.

All this would take is the financial investment for the infrastructure improvements, but the big take would be for the Scottish Parliament to give effect and direction to the economic decisions as a whole and not on the whims of a single airport operator.

William Maley,

Masonhill Road,

Ayr.

YOUR article on Edinburgh Airport’s proposed review of flight paths raises more than the important issue of the effects of noise pollution upon the citizens of Edinburgh and the Lothians who live close to the airport. Surely before beginning their own public consultation, the management of the airport would have sought guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority/National Air Traffic Services regarding the basic standards and criteria that it would have to meet?

If such a basic exercise was not undertaken then there is a suspicion that the owners and management of the airport are driven by finance and on how much more revenue can be generated.

When BAA was forced to sell Edinburgh Airport by the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, both these organisations set out standards that new owners should achieve. I do not recall reading in any of the documents provided by these two organisations that the environmental requirements of the public should be dismissed.

Mike Dooley,

52 Auchendoon Crescent,

Ayr.

WHAT a wonderful piece of engineering the new Queensferry Crossing is. And what a stupendous waste of £1.3 billion.

I crawled across it from north to south at 1.30 on a Friday. The traffic south to north at the same time was virtually at a standstill.

I have never used it at a time when either approach was open to free-flowing traffic. The traffic jams on the approach are never off the news.

When will traffic planners ever learn that four into two just doesn’t go? Wherever you try to squeeze four lanes of traffic into two, the inevitable result is just going to be congestion. I fear these are not just short-term problems we are seeing with this bridge but are intractable, which will mean that this bridge will be a total white elephant.

Unfortunately every other vanity road project ends up with the same result whether it be this new bridge, the M74 extension, the Auchenkilns “improvements” or the M77 at its junctions with the M8. It is too early to make a decision on the M8 upgrade although all we seem to be doing is getting drivers to their respective rush-hour jams in Glasgow and Edinburgh more quickly. Have you seen the queues backing up to Livingston from Edinburgh and to Easterhouse from Glasgow of a morning?

What a shame it is that on these projects we have squandered the best part of £3bn which, with a bit of imagination, could have been spent so much better on improving public transport, creating better cycling facilities (with all the spin-offs to better health and the environment), electrifying more rail lines throughout Scotland, including the Inverness line and many other smaller scale projects which would have made leaving the car at home an attractive option.

That investment could have been encouraging people out of cars rather than luring them on to the roads under the delusion that these new projects will make their journeys easier and faster.

Time to face up to reality. Bigger roads simply equal bigger traffic jams.

William Thomson,

25 Lithgow Place,

Denny.