RBS boss to face grilling over closures
THE embattled boss of the Royal Bank of Scotland will appear before MPs to explain the bank’s controversial closure programme in Scotland.
Chief executive Ross McEwan agreed to face questions from the Scottish affairs committee after MPs made a last-ditch appeal to him before using formal powers to order his appearance.
They want to quiz McEwan on proposals to shut 62 RBS branches across Scotland and plans for a partial reprieve for 10 of them.
Pete Wishart, chairman of the committee, welcomed the move. He said: “RBS are still owned by the taxpayer and we have many questions about the decision-making process that will lead to communities being left without vital banking services.” A 92-YEAR-OLD couple have been torn apart after being put into different care homes after 30 years of marriage.
Charles McGuigan and wife Jean are inconsolable after social work bosses sent them to facilities miles apart.
The couple were forced to move out of their house in Castlemilk, Glasgow, last year through ill health.
Charles has been sent to the city’s Chester Park care home in Kinning Park, while dementia sufferer Jean was decamped to Davislea care home three miles away in Govan.
The couple’s family are demanding Glasgow City Council reunite them.
After the Record made inquiries this week, it is understood moves are afoot to find Charles a room in the same home as his wife.
Jean’s daughter Sandra Jackson said: “It is unacceptable. What sort of society would treat a couple in their 90s in this way? It is a disgrace.
“At the end of last year, my stepdad Charles was taken into hospital after suffering pains in his legs that left him unable to walk.
“My mum has dementia and she couldn’t stay in the house on her own, so the social work department moved her out to Davislea care home.
“But when my stepdad was well enough to leave hospital, he was moved into Chester Park.
“Both of them are inconsolable. My mum keeps asking for her husband, and my stepdad has been in tears because he is not with her.
“The obvious solution is they are moved into Davislea, which is a lovely place where they could both be happy.
“It is what they want and it is what the family want.”
Retired shop worker Jean and Charles, a former sheet metal worker, married in 1988.
They had been living in Castlemilk for about 15 years before Charles was taken into Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December.
Glasgow City Council’s social work department initially gave the option of the couple moving into sheltered accommodation together in the future but not for Charles to move into Davislea.
Sandra added: “Mum’s care home have told me she really needs to be in a care home now.
“They also say they have room for Charles but the social work department have been telling us this isn’t an option.
“They could both move into supported accommodation but that doesn’t seem practical on account that both of their health has deteriorated.”
The council are now understood to be willing to look at the option of moving Charles into Davislea.
A spokesman for Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership said: “We cannot comment on an individual case. We always seek to ensure couples are accommodated together wherever that is possible and appropriate.”