Letter: Volunteer threat

DAME Elisabeth Hoodless, retiring head of Community Service Volunteers (CSV), is being kind when she says that the reason UK government cuts are undermining volunteering is because of "… one hand not appreciating what the other hand is doing".

It's more a case of the two hands of the British government taking away from charities and local government while expecting the people to put their hand in their own pocket to help themselves out.

The UK government is trying to drive us back to the Victorian values of charity and this in the European Year of Volunteering.

The European Commission has allocated €8 million (6.8m) for the European Year and believes it presents an excellent opportunity for the development of social action - a key pillar in the so-called Big Society.

Although the UK government has said it will invest 470m over the next four years in charities and voluntary groups to give them independence from state money, as Dame Elizabeth points out: "The cuts being imposed on local government and health services are taking place now."

The government spending cuts are destroying volunteering and, according to Dame Elizabeth: "…there are other ways of saving money without destroying the volunteer army."

Last week the leader of Liverpool City Council withdrew his city from one of the pilot projects explicitly because government cuts had "cut the lifeline to hundreds of these vital and voluntary groups".

Community Links co-founder David Robinson and Citizens' Advice Bureau chief executive Gillian Guy have also warned the pace of cuts could kill off the very groups Mr Cameron claims to want to encourage.

David Martin MEP

Roslin

Midlothian