Society judged on care

So once again South Ayrshire lives up to its low reputation by manipulating the elderly with a survey designed to give the council the outcome they wanted.

You get three options, two of which involve the demolition of your home, and when they can’t get the decision they wanted they combine the figures from the two options involving demolition to get the desired outcome.

So we now have single transferable voting consultations where your always the loser . Now the tenants of the high flats could request to address the petitions committee of South Ayrshire Council to ask for a reconsideration of the demolition decision but based on the last time this was done by those wanting the decision to overturn the music tuition charges that will end in the same result . It is not a great time to be an elderly person in South Ayrshire in anyway shape or form with the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership charging like the Light Brigade for everything like a £ 10 a day charge for daycentre usage , to paying an extra pound a day for meals at home and a rise of 75p for your community alarms, and its not just the elderly its people with learning disabilities as well for use of daycentres .

They say a society is judged on how it deals with vulnerable , South Ayrshire prove they are not better than the quote attributed to Margaret Thatcher there is no such thing as society , congratulations South Ayrshire your a little slice of heaven if South Ayrshire as renamed North Korea

Ian Stewart, Ayr

Aviewfromtheblock Bob Shields appraisal of the Riverside Place Flats saga was described like a plot from ‘ Poldark’ with the people apparently being duped by underhanded bureaucrats.

Personally I hope they are eventually retained as the view over the River Ayr , especial at night is quite breathtaking. James K. Fullerton, Ayr

Atoxiccoalition

In a recent Post, former councillor Stewart quantified unclaimed community tax discounts. SAC liability could be very significant as these payments can be backdated.

He suggested a connection with SAC’s refusal to support an independent CAB. Given SAC’s penchant for redaction and secrecy he may well be right. A CAB would make people fully aware of their entitlements.

In the interests of transparency then. taxpayers might be interested that the council funds two bodies, not found anywhere else, Housing Aid Centre and Seascape, to in excess of £ 1m per annum. Payments you will not find easily. This in addition to a council run advice service, and a housing advice service in Kyle Street. All for 750 homeless enquiries a year. Or 6% of a normal CAB workload! Oddly despite this glaring over- provision of “housing advice”, an elderly resident of the high flats asked the recent public meeting if she should decorate her home. She is after all now living in a condemned building and according to Councillor Brown, a “a fire risk”. We heard that the mostly elderly residents are now living with unacceptable uncertainty because of the recent behaviour of SAC staff and a badly informed decision of council.

A smart council would have built new houses first and moved the community intact, involving the residents along the way. And looked at what to do with the buildings later, because of course there is value in these towers. Instead we heard residents are being made empty promises, are to be scattered to the four winds, or live on a building site in their twilight years. Outrageous and utterly callous. I share Bob Shield’s views. SAC is not a smart council. Nor is it a caring council no matter how often “Never forget the people” is trotted out. In Frome in Somerset, frustrated residents replaced all their councillors with independents. Until that happy day comes. people must be held to account for the shambles of our town. Can someone please order a taxi for the self serving leaders of this toxic coalition.

John Dunlop, Ayr Dirty old town

South Ayrshire Council should be ashamed, every time we go to the town centre you dont have to walk far to find rubbish and dog muck all over the pavement. I would ask the council how many times do they send out the litter pickers to clean up the mess. If I was a tourist I would not come back to this dirty town. How come towns abroad are spotless, so its time to clean up your act and help visitors to return to Ayr and close the high street to traffic instead of opening up to two way traffic. How many vehicles need to go down that street? I have seen them go into the bank or takeaway without blue badges i even saw a motorbike at speed.

It’s supposed to be a pleasure going shopping, not a nightmare.

D Calderwood, Ayr