SIR, I refer to Councillor Aitchison’s letter published in the Border Telegraph. It can only really be described as an attempt to excuse the inexcusable. It seems to me he is thrashing around to try and find something to justify his decision to support the Tapestry and its destination at Tweedbank.

To try and compare the Discovery at Dundee with the Tapestry at Tweedbank smacks of desperation and perhaps he should wonder why no other local authority in Scotland is willing to give it a home. If the tapestry has to come to the Borders what is wrong with the empty listed Post Office building in his own ward.

Perhaps Councillor Aitchison can explain why he is a member of the Border Party (if it is still in existence), an Independent but leader of a group and is willing to be whipped by and to prop up an accident-prone and dysfunctional SNP/Lib-Dems/Independent coalition administration. It is good to see two Hawick councillors walk away from this unhealthy and undemocratic dog’s breakfast and become truly independent.

What is really worrying about this administration is its unwillingness to carry out any form of public consultation prior to making major decisions. Lack of consultation brings a lack of democracy. I can mention the garden waste fiasco, the asymmetric week and now worst of all this blinkered determination to site the Tapestry at a railway siding next to an industrial estate.

It seems to me that the Tapestry trustees are calling the shots and dictating to elected councillors when they say Tweedbank or nothing. If this is really the case, it should be nothing.

I am, etc.

Councillor Gavin Logan Tweeddale East Scottish Borders Council