THIS week's readers' letters to the Advertiser include reaction to the withdrawal of Flamingo Land's Loch Lomond planning application and calls for people and governments to take more responsibility for tackling climate change.

To have your say on any topic of local interest, email your views to editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk or get in touch via the Send Us Your News section of this website.

Please remember to supply your name and address, and to keep your contributions as brief and to-the-point as you can.

We also require a daytime contact telephone number in case we need to check any details at short notice, though this will not be published.

Happy writing!

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While Save Loch Lomond welcomes the decision by Scottish Enterprise and Flamingo Land as joint applicants to withdraw their planning application, we recognise this planned strategic move and perceived advantages.

This move avoids any chance of a refusal from the National Park Authority, call in by the Scottish Government and of course attempts to nullify the 57,000 objections – effectively silencing these voices, enabling the developers to say that the 57,000 objections don’t apply to any future application.

From the statement released through their lawyers, it is quite clear neither Flamingo Land nor Scottish Enterprise understand the real reasons for the number of objections.

There is a real opportunity to create something very special with this land, a gem to sit beside the scenic jewel that is Loch Lomond. The Flamingo Land development, even if altered, is not it.

The land is incidentally far from derelict. It may be vacant, but not derelict.

We will be seeking clarification from Scottish Enterprise if they intend to maintain the Exclusivity Agreement with Flamingo Land which prevents any other more appropriate and locally beneficial projects from being explored and discussed seriously with planning authorities.

We will continue to work together with all other objectors to maintain pressure and expound the arguments as to why the Flamingo Land project is the wrong type of development for this site in Balloch and to show alternatives that bring greater local benefits and are befitting of a National Park. The campaign continues.

Alannah Maurer, on behalf of Save Loch Lomond

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READ MORE: Helensburgh Advertiser letters: September 19, 2019

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I WAS extremely pleased to read letters and articles in the local press last week from several local politicians of differing backgrounds and parties supporting our young people in challenging the effects of climate change and encouraging the local community to join with them in tackling what is the most important problem facing the world’s future this century.

If we all do not tackle waste disposal, plastic pollution and start acting in a more responsible fashion we are all doomed. There is no planet B for us to move to.

The short-term, selfish attitudes of some of our world’s leaders are demonstrated all around us. Destroying forests in Brazil and Indonesia for short term gain. The irresponsible destruction of habitat for a diversity of wildlife. The destruction of the oil storage in Saudi Arabia, creating immense pollution and creating miserable conditions for the population of Yemen. Horrendous flooding in Bangladesh where the rise in sea level is uncontrollable. The threat of greater and more powerful hurricanes due to global warming.

It is imperative that we all take some responsibility for our actions and don’t depend on others to clean up after us.

Do try to participate in local litter picks and beach cleans. Be an active participant in your community. The council cannot be responsible for everything.

Margaret Horrell, Helensburgh (via email)

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READ MORE: Helensburgh Advertiser letters: September 12, 2019

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Last Friday I joined Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and thousands of others on the climate change march in Glasgow.

We were joined by millions throughout the world calling for urgent actions from Governments to protect our environment.

Here in Scotland, the SNP Government has declared a climate change emergency, but is not following these words with actions.

For example, they have postponed from 2021 to 2025 the ban on sending waste material to landfill. They had not made the preparations necessary to achieve the original target of 2021.

We need to replace petrol and diesel cars with electric ones. These obviously require vehicle charging points, but the Scottish Government is failing to provide enough of these here in Argyll and Bute.

People won’t switch to electric cars until they can be convinced they will be able to charge them everywhere in Scotland.

This week the Liberal Democrats will move an amendment in the Scottish Parliament setting a target of cutting carbon emissions in Scotland to a quarter of their present amount by 2030.

I hope all MSPs will vote for this. We owe it to young people and future generations to take steps now to protect our environment from the effects of climate change.

Alan Reid (Liberal Democrat candidate, Argyll and Bute)

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READ MORE: Helensburgh Advertiser letters: September 5, 2019

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With almost half of adults owning a pet, Britain is truly a nation of animal lovers – and the benefits are clear. New research shows that 83 per cent of pet owners in the UK believe their animals help reduce their stress levels and improve their emotional wellbeing.

However, few people are aware that working animals are vitally important to the health and survival of people in the world’s poorest communities. Horses, donkeys, camels and other animals help provide millions of impoverished families with a basic income for food, transport to hospital, and other necessities for life, such as water or firewood – but many have no access to vital veterinary treatment when they’re sick or injured. , such as water and firewood

Just like pet owners in the UK, the owners of working animals would be lost without their animals. But hardworking animals in developing countries often have no access to vital veterinary treatment when they are sick or injured.

This World Animal Day (October 4), I’m asking everyone to recognise the value and importance of every single animal, be they the ones we share our homes with, or working animals overseas that support the livelihoods of over half a billion people worldwide. please help us give working animals the care they so desperately need by visiting spana.org/worldanimalday

Geoffrey Dennis (chief executive, SPANA – the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad)