New Petitions

It will not affect existing ones from which adults and children are in probable danger. We all know the history of private companies pushing their wares and not caring a button about the population. I am slightly changing the request in the petition, as there would be difficulty in changing any planning arrangements that have been agreed by the democratically elected councils. However, we feel that there is a strong enough case, as a breach of safety and trust has occurred.The system whereby the planning authority gains financially from agreeing to the masts should be changed. Glasgow City Council is continuously crying out that it is underfunded, and will take any opportunity to make money. We think that that is an unsatisfactory system. Sites should be agreed by an independent organisation. I do not know whether you know, but equipment has been purchased to enable checks on hot spots that are reckoned to come from such masts and which can be of possible danger to people. As the photographs show, people live right around the mast. There are children in those houses, yet the residents had no say in the matter—and this is supposed to be a democracy.

Yes, but the petition asks for a retrospective change to be made. That is why I have said that the chief executive, James Andrews, should be formally requested to reconsider the matter. People were tricked by a discredited system that was set up by Westminster, which was pushing a new technological system without a care in the world about what the effects on people might be. The council should be required to go through the process again so that people can get a proper understanding of what the hell it is all about.

The company that erected the mast, James Barr and Son, sent a letter informing us of planning consent for the construction of access steps and the erection of an entrance gate and a hand rail. I did not think too much about the letter as there already are steps into the park. People really had no inkling of what was happening.

Yes. Some people—I think about three houses out of the 15—did not even receive that letter. The way that the system operated in this case, and probably in others, was totally unsatisfactory. My community is taking a very democratic approach. Another community took direct action and broke up the mast.

I am asking this committee to get James Andrews to go through the process again as it was entirely faulty, breached safety regulations and did not tell people anything. We cannot go to anybody else for help.

The mast that I am talking about is 12 m high.

But would the committee not come back to you and say, "We can't change what has been a planning consent?"

People would be happy with that.

May I leave these photographs with you?

Good afternoon. I am happy to be here. It has been a fascinating afternoon. My father was a judge in civil law in Hamburg, and he had a lot of similar questions, so I have found this meeting interesting.

I hope before I am dead that the children of Scotland have the same practical experience as do children in Europe, who start school at six or seven. Their vitality is far greater. They have a much more broad education. The health service in Scotland would save millions of pounds.I can give you examples. When children start school at four or five, boys are bored. They want to kick or tramp or climb trees. They want to experience life. At school, they are going to sleep. Our doctors have found that after six months in school, children no longer have any deep breathing. That means that they have shallow breathing in their chest. They have bronchitis. Do you know how many hours are lost because of bronchitis and asthma in Scotland alone? Little girls are diligent. Even at four they can usually hold a pencil. They are writing. But what happens? They get arthritis. A doctor told me, "Four at school, 40 in a wheelchair." We have 40,000 wheelchair users, and it is completely unnecessary.A child who starts school at six or seven will learn reading, writing and arithmetic far more easily. Childhood is development in phases. The first seven years are needed to build a strong body. Children need plenty of movement and fresh air, good food and no pressure. They need time, leisure and rich verbal input. I am a writer. Here you can see my book of Scottish and Irish stories. A wealth of oral tradition in Scotland is lost because people use the most stupid readers—excuse that expression—in primary schools. Children are too small to read reasonable things. They cannot read, content-wise, anything that is meaningful. That leads to what I have termed frustrated beginners.Why do people play truant? Because they are bored. What is given to them is wrong. They are absolutely right to protest against school at four. I put my petition to our Borders Liberal Democrats, and I was amazed. It had 100 per cent support. Fathers said, "Our daughter is ruined because she started school at four and a half." You cannot repeat what you have lost in the early years of childhood.School should start at six, but in a way that is rhythmical, that is rich in oral work and that still gives a lot of movement. That is why I do not call it a nursery but a kindergarten—a garden for children, where they can be outside, where they can have a sandpit, where they can get to love this earth on which we work, where they can have a swing to really experience courage and where they can have the circle time, the story time and the social interaction. I believe that that would make Scotland a very much happier place. As I said, before I am deid I want to see it.I have here some interesting work that was done in Nordrhein-Westfalen on kindergarten workshops. Naturspielräume means creating in a very small space. A small child is quite happy in a small space with a Wendy house, a little hill for running up and down, a few trees and shrubs and a sandpit. They do not need much space, but the children should be outside for a lot of their time. I hope that all of that will come. If it does not come now, it will come. Parents are already writing to Brussels. There is a fantastic organisation called A Right to Childhood. This is a human rights issue: we need to delay formal learning. That is my spiel.

I was at Moray House for 20 years.

No. I believe in good schooling and strict discipline.

If children learned more of the important social skills, we would not need all the dustbin men. Switzerland is clean. Children learn in kindergarten to be aware of their surroundings and to be proud of the country.

May I read an amendment of the Scottish National party Inverness conference in September 1999?

Would you like to hear it?

It has only four lines."In order to decrease inequalities and failure at an early age, Conference calls on the SNP group to work towards changing the starting age of formal education to 6 years in line with our European neighbours and in line with the increasing body of research in this area".

I am not SNP, I am quite liberal. Mr Jenkins fully supports my petition. Is anyone interested in looking at some of our beautiful stuff? Probably not, but shall I leave it?

These articles contain some modern ideas, because they are still learning in Germany too.