PARKING charges are a necessary evil but when they disrupt the smooth running of hospitals they must be questioned.

If it is necessary to introduce them in the streets around the GRI, there has to be adequate, cheap local parking or efficient public transport.

Since neither exists, the council is not improving traffic flow, it is simply making life unbearable for medical and domestic staff, patients and visitors.

How can low-paid nurses and cleaners afford extortionate parking rates?

Why are people working anti-social hours being forced to park increasingly further from the hospital?

And why is surgery now at the mercy of an apparently unreliable bus shuttle service?

From confusing traffic management systems at the Squinty Bridge to ignoring traffic blackspots, the council is failing to get a grip on transport issues.

It must do better and can start by reviewing its plans for the streets around the Royal. Games will offer a healthy legacy

THE list of sports featured in Glasgow's Commonwealth Games bid is impressive.

They will not only encourage young people to get involved now in a variety of worthwhile activities but will also leave a healthy legacy.

And that could hardly be more important at a time when obesity among young people is such a serious issue.

This spin-off from the Games, promising a healthier generation, is another reason why all Scotland must back the bid.