Dear Editor, The other day I was in North Wales – in a little village named Pantymwyn. There was no mobile signal there whatsoever, as the village was down in the valley. My data card for my laptop computer would not work too. Therefore people could not contact me but even worse I could not use the Internet and process e-mails etc. Amazingly, there was an article on BBC about a device supplied by Vodafone – costs £160 and if you add it to your good broadband connection it allows you to use your mobile phone in your house (assuming you use Vodafone and BT Broadband of course). Interestingly the concept has been around a long time in BT and of course there are other ways of getting mobile signals in to communities. That is a combination of mobile, wimax and wifi technologies brought together to provide a solution. Of course I could go out and buy a satellite data card with all the necessary equipment. But I think that would be a bit of overkill in the cost department. I suppose the simplest solution would be for the mobile operators to provide the service in communities like Pantynwyn in the first place. After all it is the year 2009 and not 1909.

Best wishes, Charles Litster

Dear Editor, I thought one of the purposes of Fife Council was to encourage the economy in Fife especially in a time of economic down turn. Yet according to a Freedom of Information (Scotland) act 2002 – request for information response by Fife Council, in June 2009 they took over 5% (18450) of Fifers to court. That is for non-payment of 2009/2010 Council Tax in June. As a result those Fifers will have on average been charged an extra £200 to cover any Court costs. Most of the Council Tax payers will have expected that court action in July and August not June. As August was traditionally the time action was taken by the Council against people whom had not paid. The action of the Council bringing forward this date from August to June will have been a surprise to many. Additionally there was no date given on any of the material from Fife Council saying that court action would be taken by a certain date thereby giving those Fifers a chance to pay their Council Tax Bill without penalty before a known deadline. The really sad thing about all of this is that a large proportion of the Fifers will be struggling to make ends meet and despite a downturn in the economy Fife Council have given no consideration to those people's needs. Just a final thought given that 18,450 people have had to pay a penalty of about £200, this means that a total of £3.69m has been lost to the Fife Economy forever because Fife Council do not communicate effectively nor are sympathetic to the needs of their Council Tax payers in these harsh times.

Best wishes, Mr Finnie, Fife

Dear Editor, Well when the idea of a Scottish Parliament was first muted, I thought who would want to be an MSP as the job appeared to be second rate to that of being a member of the Westminster Parliament. Perhaps that is not true, I believe MSPs have holidays from attending the parliament as and when schools are on holiday. Not bad is it? all those weeks off every year, year in, year out. However, some members and not just content with the parliament not sitting for weeks on end, some members disappear on holiday while the Parliament business is still continuing. All said and done, if the requirement for attending during business sessions is so small, it must give our MSPs the time to devote to their constituents and keep up to date with local issues, which cannot be said about all our Scottish Members of the Westminster Parliament.

Name and address withheld

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