Mercy team in council axe row
Anger of staff at meals service as as vans and drivers are withdrawn
The boss of a vital food service has accused South Ayrshire Council of cutting his support.
Ayr’s 10: 10 Trust, which feeds thousands of our most impoverished, has seen demand spike during the coronavirus crisis. But a bitter war of words has broken out after council chiefs withdrew members of staff who were helping the effort.
Trust CEO, Dylan Harper, said: “People are dying out there.
“The council more than anyone know the importance of what we are doing.”
Council bosses insist they will send in volunteers to replace the staff they have removed.
A vital service which provides meals to the vulnerable has been left on the verge of closure after a withdrawal of council support.
Ayr’s 10: 10 Trust received the bombshell news that South Ayrshire Council is cutting staff and transport resources.
The project, which has delivered around 20,000 meals in the last five weeks, helps feed the region’s most impoverished. But council officials will now “redeploy” a team of workers who had played a key role in making the scheme a success.
That’s left devastated bosses at the community hub, where over 70 volunteers are based, picking up the pieces.
And they insist the service could now face closure after the plug was pulled on critical team members.
Dylan Harper, CEO of the 10: 10 Trust, told the Ayrshire
Post : “People are dying out there and we are doing what we can to help them through these horrible times.
“South Ayrshire Council refer people to us on a daily basis, so for them to withdraw support makes no sense.
“They more than anyone know the importance of the work we are doing.
“We support people from Troon to Girvan and are literally in here working seven days a week to keep up.
“Their decision to withdraw support will have significant impact on our service, most likely to the point of closure.
“That wouldn’t be a decision we would take lightly but we’d be left with little option.”
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, the council has been supporting the 10: 10 team with four staff members and vans to ferry food around the county.
Volunteers are based at Ayr’s Castlehill Church, from where they co- ordinate the massive relief effort.
But despite the Trust reporting more referrals than ever, the council’s support team will now be withdrawn.
Rev Paul Russell is the minister at Castlehill and he, said: “The irony is that today alone, the referrals from South Ayrshire Council have been flowing in to us.
“Over the last five weeks, this team has reached out to the most vulnerable in South
They more than anyone know the importance of the work we are doing
Ayrshire. These are the people who do not have a voice in society and they desperately need our help.
“By doing this, the council are putting at risk the very emergency cases they are sending our way.”
When pressed by the Post, council bosses said they needed the four members of staff to switch to other tasks.
Prescription deliveries to community pharmacies, delivering free school meals and providing additional services to more than 4,000 people shielding will be among their new tasks. A spokesman added that “direct funding” and “the provision of a substantial amount of food” had also been provided to the 10: 10 Trust to help with their efforts, along with the four staff members and their vans.
They continued: “We have, through the national call for assistance, been advised that 619 volunteers from South Ayrshire have registered with Volunteer Scotland and 455 with the British Red Cross.
“The next phase of our support will be to contact these volunteers and disperse and direct them to community groups.
“This means we will be able to provide additional volunteers to support the 10: 10 Trust and allow our staff to return to other priority areas of work within the council.
“The staff who are currently supporting the Trust all have PVG certificates and have additional skills to driving which we need to deploy elsewhere to ensure we can maintain vital services during this period.”