Letters Councillors out of touch
Sir - I really could not let last week's item 'New funding crisis for CAB' pass without comment.
Just what does Cllr Pat O'Neill expect for the £12,730 that the council pays to the local Citizens' Advice Bureau?
We live in a country where the average national income is approximately £25,000 and I suggest that if a professional adviser is only paid £25,000 per annum, that is cheap. Most other professionals who offer advice, such as solicitors, command considerably higher salaries than that.
Of course, most of the advice is actually offered freely by unpaid volunteers - but councillors have absolutely no right to expect that - surely, all they really have a right to expect is what they (and we as ratepayers) have paid for, which is the equivalent of one modestly-paid adviser working part time. Goole and its surrounding area contain a great many people with a great many problems and for the local CAB to adequately assist with these will require a great deal more money than it currently receives.
To suggest that funding to the bureau should be withdrawn because the service is struggling to meet demand is rather like suggesting that donations to Oxfam should be stopped because there are still starving people in the world. Furthermore, and contrary to statements in the article, the bureau does have a waiting room and appointments can be made.
On this matter at least, our councillors seem to be no more in touch with the facts than they are with commonsense.
Simon Froom
Beast Fair,
Snaith
Published on 1st May 2008 in Letters.
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