Why did city lag behind in helping disabled veterans?

Published on Tuesday 1 July 2008 21:42

Your report on last week's Veterans Day celebrations (28 July) made interesting reading as much for what was missing as for the substance.

In the article, we read that Councillor Bob Winter unveiled the new policy of disregarding war disablement and war-widow pensions in Glasgow when calculating housing benefit. I wonder if this would have been the centrepiece of the day had the SNP not put forward a motion to last week's full council meeting. Our motion called on Glasgow City Council to follow the lead of almost every other council in Scotland and provide this facility to veterans. It is a disgrace that our city did not provide this service to our disabled veterans and war widows.

Working with the Royal British Legion Scotland, I found many local authorities have been providing this service for some time; the veterans of Glasgow, many living below the poverty line, deserve better and should have been helped sooner by this Labour council. For a little over 100,000 a year – or a fraction of 1 per cent of the total council budget – this measure could have been introduced much sooner.

(CLLR) BILLY McALLISTER

Glasgow City Chambers

George Square

Glasgow