Most vulnerable will suffer if CAB offices are closed

Published on Friday 26 September 2008 10:14

I WORK as a volunteer in the Leith Citizens Advice Bureau and have done so for the past four years. I travel some distance to work at the Leith office and I receive no expenses (my decision) for this work.

You report that four local CAB offices are to close (News September 24). Somewhere along the line the CAE – the body formed when Edinburgh City Council insisted in only dealing with one decision making source – has lost the plot. The concept of local bureaux serving the needs of those within the area seem to have been lost. The office in which I work has as its client base many of the older and most vulnerable in society, immigrants seeking advice in how best to integrate into the Scottish work and lifestyle, those who have either physical or mental health issues and who need their rights explained to them and work carried out on their behalf.

We are consolidating the efforts of CAB into one building with access initially through a telephone call when the reality is that for many of the clients a phone is a luxury they cannot afford. How does the person who needs a crisis loan and lives in Muirhouse or Portobello get to Dundas Street?

Many of our clients need to have instant access to an adviser. A by-product of debt is the inability to organise so it should come as no surprise that those in debt come to us with eviction notices and other legal summonses at the last minute. What do they do?

I had no plans to quit the CAB but feel now that the rug has been pulled from beneath my feet.

John Murphy, Hillside Avenue, Dalgety Bay

We won't forget regiments battle

THE veterans of the Royal Scots must be mystified at three politicians praising the story of Corporal Robert Beveridge fighting for his country in the First World War (News, September 23).

Whilst we all applaud the heroic deeds of Cpl Beveridge, we can't get our head around why three Labour politicians – Jim Devine, Graham Morrice and Alex Davidson – have clubbed together to sing the praises of this remarkable soldier. It was the same Labour Party who, looking for ways to balance their books, ordered the Ministry of Defence to conduct a review in their spending and the decision was to amalgamate the oldest British regiment,The Royal Scots with another famous Border regiment, The King's Own Scottish Borderers.

The veterans around the world – reckoned to be 11 million-strong – will never forget that fateful day when New Labour took up their knifes and cut the regimental system into shreds. We have left an overstretched, undermanned, under-recruited and disillusioned armed force that will never be the same again.

Major Bob Ritchie, Bloom Court, Livingston Village

Diamond gesture required from JK

If JK Rowling is concerned about poverty why not do as Sir Sean Connery did after the 1971 Bond film Diamonds Are Forever – give 1 million to set up a trust for young people? 1m won't make much of a dent in Labour's debt but it would make a considerable difference by setting up a trust fund.

Andrew J T Kerr, Castlegate, Jedburgh

Gray can't match stateman Salmond

THE past week has shown a stark contrast between First Minister Alex Salmond and his newLabour opposite number, Iain Gray. Since the HBoS news broke, Salmond has been non-partisan and statesmanlike, involving the business community and other parties to find a way through the crisis.

Iain Gray, on the other hand, let himself down in his "maiden speech" to Labour's party conference by returning to the negative Nat-bashing and personal attacks on his opponents which have made his party so unpopular.

Most Scots will be heaving a sigh of relief that it is Alex Salmond who is First Minister and not Iain Gray, who already looks out of his depth.

Sophie L Anderson. Marchmont Road, Edinburgh

Wages 'problem' needs a solutionHEARTS Chief Sergejus Fodotovas may well claim that there is no "wages problem" at the Gorgie club but surely after the mass walkout of staff in Scotland's capital city Councillors Jenny Dawe and Steve Cardownie can no longer make the same claim about Edinburgh City Council with any credibility.

Someone who has long been aware that Edinburgh does have a "wages problem" is Cammy Day, the Labour Party's choice of candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Forth Ward.

Cammy has made public his 100 per cent support for the pay claim being jointly pursued by Unison, GMB and Unite members throughout Scotland. The question that constituents may well want to ask themselves is who – if anyone – out of his rivals is prepared to join him in fighting for a fair deal for Edinburgh's council staff?

Korstiaan P Allan, Whitingford, Edinburgh