I HAVE found out that most carers of those who have an illness or disability are treated with bitter contempt by politicians – irrespective of the fact that we are helping to save them £87bn a year by doing this.
I am saying this as someone who has just become such a carer of somebody very close, who suffers from a heart condition and cancer.
As soon as the person you're caring for is diagnosed, you have to apply for Attendance Allowance and Carer’s Allowance.
Carer’s Allowance is £50.55 and is dependant on the person being cared for receiving attendance allowance.
Some carers – themselves suffering from illnesses and claiming Incapacity Benefit – are unfairly penalised in being denied Carer’s Allowance.
They do not chose their illnesses or disabilities. Caring is hard work and very stressful.
A claim for Income Support brings about threats of withdrawal of it if you do not accept work-focused interviews. Caring does not fit around any work pattern. Carers do not fall into the same category as lay-abouts.
I feel belittled and abused that my Government does not value me as a carer – wouldn’t it be nice if we could all receive a rate of Carer’s Allowance that has some reflection on these special duties?
This is not rocket science, it could be found from the £87bn that is being saved every year. An official letter from the DWP, informing you that you are a recognised carer is simply no good, if in reality you are being denied Carer’s Allowance.
In conclusion, it is easy to see that £87bn is being saved by denying Carer’s Allowance and that such carers are helping to prop up a policy of social care on the cheap.
We are suffering a great injustice. The cared-for and their carers demand much better than this.
Alan J Robinson
Huddersfield
No calming needed
MY neighbour, a resident of Kirkwood Drive for 18 years told me the recent car accident is the first he is aware of happening during his residence.
I think traffic calming or anything similar to be over the top. All that is required is consideration for others and basic driving skills.
Also the amount of traffic might have increased but that is probably due to the road works on Halifax Road.
Resident
Kirkwood Drive
Library a valued resource
HAVING read Councillor Christine Stanfield’s reply to a letter sent regarding the proposed closure of New Mill Library, in which she stated “288 borrowers, not even one person for every day of the year” as a valid reason to close it and save money, I feel I must protest.
Not one to allow facts to get in the way of a good statistic, she completely missed the point.
Apart from the fact that it is not open on Sundays and Bank Holidays, during the 17 hours a week that it is open the library provides many functions, which have been completely disregarded.
The books passed over the counter, which by my research are between 35 and 60 books per head – not including those held by other users like health and fitness centres, which account for a further 100 plus books – are only the beginning of the service it provides to the district.
It is the venue for an adult literary group which meets on a regular basis. There is a children’s story time every Thursday in the school term, encouraging the love of reading, so important to children’s education and future.
The library provides a display for information as to what is taking place in the surrounding area.
It provides an exhibition space for societies like the local history society.
The library arranges many activities which take place in the school holidays and these are well attended.
The suggestion that a mobile library can substitute for any of these parts of the service is complete nonsense.
People at work and children at school cannot use it, add to this its limitations as to quantity of books and choice and it is a non starter.
Clr Stanfield says that possibly a grant could be obtained to provide a community room for computing and other cultural activities. We already have this in the library, use the grant to keep it.
Once again it is the rural communities that have the withdrawals and closures to provide the largess that is poured into the town centre, providing the money to allow for the desecration of areas of Huddersfield’s heritage like St George’s Square, surrounded as it is by fine examples of architecture, to be financed.
The excuse that it is different funding is not on, all finance for the whole of Kirklees comes from the same coffers in the end, however it is distributed.
It is often quoted that the vociferous minority are the ones that are heard. The minority in this instance is to be found in the planning offices and council chamber of Kirklees.
These people are more concerned about what they want and completely disregard the people who pay their taxes, expecting in return to receive services to the community which they are there to provide.
Library Supporter
Jackson Bridge
Toilet troubles
I READ the letter from Concerned Grandparent on April 17 with great interest.
On Easter Monday, I took my 89-year old mum for a stroll in Ravensknowle Park and, like Greenhead Park, there is a lack of toilets.
If the museum is closed there are no toilets whatsoever. We certainly had to cut our stroll short!
And where, oh where have all the park benches gone? We had walked through the football field and playground, round the stables and the back of the museum before we eventually found a bench.
If Kirklees wants us to use their parks they will certainly have to get their act together for both young and old!
Local Resident
Huddersfield
Teachers and taxes
I WOULD like to inform Mr M W Watson (Letters, April 20) that I, like many others, do get off my butt, every morning, at the crack of dawn, to go to work, to pay taxes.
This I have been doing for 40 years and will continue to do so for the next 10 years, God willing, to contribute towards the teachers’ gold-plated pensions.
What more does this government and the National Union of Teachers want from Joe Public – blood?
Mike Warren-Madden
Crackpot Cottage
Future of chapels
DECISION day is here for Edgerton Cemetery’s twin chapels’ future.
Kirklees Council’s deadline of April 24 for “expressions of interest” from organisations wishing to use and manage them is today.
They are the “Jewels in the Crown” of Huddersfield’s oldest and main cemetery, built by the same architect that designed Huddersfield Railway Station.
Tens of thousands of Huddersfield people are buried in Edgerton Cemetery and, for many, their funeral services are held in the twin chapels – one for members of the Church of England and the other for non-members.
Perhaps Kirklees Council should express interest itself in using the chapels as a heritage centre for this once-proud town?
Interest in local and family history is undergoing a resurgence across Britain, following the BBC TV series “Who Do You Think You Are?”.
Kirklees Council could refurbish the chapels as somewhere local people could trace their family members buried in the cemetery and commemorated in the gravestones and Kirklees Cultural Services could use the new heritage centre for exhibitions about such companies as Hopkinsons – many of whose workers are now buried nearby in the cemetery, within earshot of the demolition and rebuilding on the former Hopkinsons’ site.
Where can industrial archives better be displayed and interpreted than in a local heritage centre?
If Kirklees Council can find £4m for pedestrianising St George’s Square outside Huddersfield Station, then how much more value should be placed on the town’s 150 plus year old cemetery and its chapels – developed by today’s councillors’ more illustrious predecessors such as Joshua Hobson, the main mover and shaker, and Alderman Ben Stocks, who completed the Town Hall.
They must be turning in their graves in Edgerton Cemetery at the lack of enterprise shown by their successors, who despite having an annual budget of nearly £1bn, seem to have got their priorities wrong.
Kenn Winter
Lindley
Excellent education
I WOULD like to say thank you to Mrs Vaughey, Mrs Haigh & Mrs Crosland and all the staff at Rastrick Independent School.
Both my children have attended the school from birth and this will be their final term.
The care, attention, education and good old fashioned etiquette my little ones have received is excellent.
It’s difficult to know what’s best for your babies in this day and age. However, I do believe Rastrick Independent has provided the highest level of care any working parent could ask for, alongside peace of mind.
My children have been so happy and made some fantastic relationships, building a great foundation for life.
Caroline, Glyn, Thomas and Amelia Mitchell
Golcar
