Letters: August 10, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Excellent service axed

SWINDON has an excellent service for the disabled. Dial a Ride buses are specially adapted to their needs with pull down steps and rails to give easy access.

Their well trained drivers are a reassuring presence always ready to help.

In the morning they take disabled people to work and bring them home at the end of the day. Then they take disabled people to do their shopping. The system is that the lines are open at 10am each morning and users ring in to request to be picked up and brought home the following day, mostly to do their weekly shopping.

They say what approximate time would suit them. The office staff, with the help of a computer, work out how all these requests can all be fitted in.

They ring back later in the day giving the precise times and usually allocating an hour or so in the shop.

When they bring the user home they carry their bags of shopping into the house.

They also take the disabled to hospital appointments.

There have been a few rumours about possible cuts to the service, but nobody was prepared for the shock, indeed heartbreak, when they had a letter in the post telling them that it was now certainly going to happen.

The result will be that the working disabled will have to join the unemployed and the majority of those who live alone and depend on Dial a Ride say they will no longer be able to manage to live independently but will have to give up their home and go into care.

We have offered to pay more than £6.30 per outing which we currently pay but are told that that charge only covers the cost of petrol.

The purchase and maintenance of the specially designed buses, payment of office staff and equipment and of salary of some drivers, though many are volunteers, are all covered by the council grant.

Even if the council is not concerned about the distress that they are causing, perhaps they will have some regard for the increased cost in unemployment benefit and provision of care homes.

It is worth noting that not all borough councils are withdrawing support from Dial a Ride.

MARGARET TUCKWELL

Shrivenham Road

Highworth

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Incorrect Remain claim

AS ADAM Poole seeks to twist and turn in an attempt to defend his position on the EU referendum I fear he has fallen into a trap of his own making (SA, August 8).

Leaving aside his incorrect view that Mr Cameron never alluded to the spectre of a third world war if the UK left the political construct of the EU, he then goes on to state with a totally unjustified certainty that Lloyds Bank is making another round of redundancies as a direct result of the EU vote.

Even the most casual observer will know that this claim was repudiated by the bank who made it quite clear the decision on redundancies had been made many months before and in fact was not a consequence of the vote.

Mr Poole refers to the “gutter lie” that some of the £350m currently paid to the EU could be spent on the NHS – as the UK has not yet left the EU I think it fair to say that it is odd to expect that it would be – yet!

I once again do not agree that I have misrepresented Mr Poole who, incidentally, added the caveat about job losses rather than job risk only on his second and third letters and not the first.

Notwithstanding, he really is wrong to suggest that all 3.5 million jobs were at risk – if he had said some or even a few his comment would have had some credibility but to use the word “all” was simply to repeat the scare tactic of the Remainers.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive

Swindon

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Brexit grass not green?

REFERRING to Mr Morgan’s letter of July 20. Greetings to him from a planet far, far away.

From my distant observation post I note that humans often change their minds when they peer over the fence and see that the grass is in fact not as green as they had first perceived.

It will probably be at least at least since months after the referendum result before Article 50 to exit the EU can be signed and, during this time, emergent information may well cause UK inhabitants of Earth to have second thoughts.

So, before any irrevocable decision is made to leave the EU I believe it would be prudent to test the will of the people again.

JOHN LEWIS

Beverstone Grove, Swindon

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Hunger during holidays

NEW research published by the Trussell Trust brings home the desperate choices facing many families across the UK this summer.

The findings reveal that a fifth of parents will skip a meal during the school holidays so that their children can eat.

And the charity estimates as many as 1.5 million people could be forced to forego food over the coming weeks.

As a charity fighting poverty in the UK, we hear from families who are struggling with decisions like these every single day.

Forty-two per cent of parents told us they are worried about spending more on food for their children during the summer break and 36 per cent are concerned about paying their essential bills at this time.

As a result, one in six will be forced to borrow money through credit cards, overdrafts and loans to make it through.

We know that the extra financial costs that the school summer holidays bring create added pressure for families. who are already struggling to afford housing, food and other essentials.

It’s clear that more needs to be done to put an end to holiday hunger and we’re working together with the Trussell Trust and other like-minded organisations to ensure that support for families is as accessible and prominent as possible.

We urge anyone who is struggling to use our free benefits calculator, grants search and other help at turn2us.org.uk to find out what support could be available. It could make all the difference.

SIMON HOPKINS

Chief executive

Turn2us

Shepherds Bush Road, London