Poor suffer most from cuts

Dear Editor Healthy n Happy Board of Directors are all local residents in Cambuslang and Rutherglen and we read the Council Leaders column, 23/11/2016, with sadness, disappointment and dismay.

The real story here is what will happen to our poorest communities and our most vulnerable residents at a time when they need public services to support them more than ever.

We are gravely concerned about what impact the current South Lanarkshire Council proposals will have on our most deprived communities and our most vulnerable residents.

We are alarmed that the council leader, other councillors and now the public are being misinformed with distorted and misleading information and we would like to present the facts.

We are very happy to meet with councillors and officials to clear up any misunderstandings about the information.

The council misleadingly give the impression that we have £ 854,000 cash in the bank and at our disposal. This is not true and is a fundamental misunderstanding of what charities reserves represent.

This is clearly outlined in our 2015/16 annual accounts and we reported this to the council in September 2016, as we do every year. £567,000 of these total reserves is the value of our Number 18 building and not available cash.

That money is already spent and the council knew this. £131,000 was restricted funding to be spent on services in 2016/17 and we cannot spend that to cover council cuts.

That leaves £156,000 of unrestricted reserves. This is not money that we are free to spend or to replace council funding. This money is needed to cover our legal duties and responsibilities and to keep the charity afloat and solvent.

If you look at our annual accounts you will see we have been advised that we actually have a shortfall in our level of unrestricted reserves and that we need to increase them by a further £118,000.

Healthy n Happy does NOT have funds in reserve to enable continuation of the services funded by the Tackling Poverty funds and these vital services will stop. As a result there will be higher costs and burden placed on social work, social care, NHS and education services and they are already finding it hard to cope.

Who loses out?... Vulnerable residents and local communities.

We know the council is facing serious funding pressures.

We also know, as well as anyone, that we are not immune to facing the pain of funding cuts and austerity.

This is the third cut we have had from South Lanarkshire Council in four years. Just ask our staff and volunteers who every March, don’t know if they will still have their jobs or volunteer roles or not.

This new proposed cut will mean we will not be able to deliver many of our essential core services to residents in our most deprived communities and indeed the whole future of HnH could be put into doubt due to the knock on effect.

We urge the councillors and officials to meet with us to establish the facts so that they and the public can make decisions based on factual and correct information. Board of directors, Healthy ‘n’ Happy Community Development Trust

Westminster reduces cutsin Scotland In his article for your paper, the Tory list MSP for Glasgow, Mr Adam Tomkins, mentions the £800million for infrastructure Chancellor Philip Hammond has given in his budget to Scotland.

While it is welcome, Mr Tomkins neglects to write that it is over a four-year period! £200m a year.

This should be viewed in the context of the £2billion cuts already imposed on Scotland by the Westminster Government and if the political economists are correct about the forthcoming Brexit, much worse is coming our way.

When Nicola Sturgeon was asked by the Tories in Holyrood in thank Mr Hammond, she pointed out that the £800m now reduced the cuts on Scotland to £1.9bn.

On a happier note, I have enjoyed reading about the recent success of my old club Cambuslang Harriers - I was a member for 17 years.

I no longer run, nevertheless, I have great memories of when I used to compete in their colours.

I am also pleased to see a greater participation in the club now of female athletes. Robert Brennan, Machrie Road, Castlemilk.

RailInvestment Regarding the commuter’s letter in last week’s Reformer, I’d like to point out that two bodies run our rail system: Network rail are responsible for the infrastructure and Scotrail is responsible for running the trains/ timetables etc.

Network Rail are responsible to the UK Government and ScotRail are responsible to Holyrood. The Scottish Government said the penalties for ScotRail’s performance total £2.2 million. Reform Scotland’s report “Track to the future” states that 54 per cent of delays were due to Network Rail.

It also said that “The Scottish Government is responsible for the strategic direction and funding of the rail network, but this responsibility cannot be properly exercised while Network Rail answers to the UK Government.” Nationalising ScotRail isn’t the answer because of the 54 per cent Network Rail delays.

Our rail infrastructure has been neglected by successive UK Governments. This is shown by comparing journey times between cities in Scotland and England, like Edinburgh to Aberdeen and London to Birmingham. These are roughly the same distance, but the Scots journey takes two hours while the other is less than 90 minutes.

This isn’t down to the management of the system or the trains but it shows that due to lack of investment by the UK Government, our infrastructure is worse.

The answer is obvious – devolve Network Rail to Scotland and then we would know who’s responsible. Name and address supplied

BrexitDeal

People in Rutherglen are telling me all the time that they do not recall such a shambles as the one caused by the Conservative government over the European referendum. Even now, there is no idea of what the Prime Minister and her government are looking for.

The idea put forward by the Liberal Democrats of a “Brexit Deal referendum” is gaining increasing support. After the Conservative humiliation in the Richmond Park by election, the idea that the Prime Minister can have a sort of “blank cheque Brexit” looks increasingly foolish and indeed unlikely. We cannot and should not just hand over all control to the Conservatives to agree any deal that they like and to take us out of Europe no matter the economic and social consequences.

A vote of the British people at the end of the negotiations would give a democratic endorsement of that process. It is time for all pro-Europeans in Rutherglen and Cambuslang to rally behind the proposal for a Brexit deal referendum. It is the best way – possibly the only way – to keep Britain in Europe, or at the very least in the vital Single Market. Councillor Robert Brown, By email