Don’t penalise the vulnerable

WITH reference to Radio Shetland of 15 March concerning cutbacks at COPE, perhaps councillors who penalise the less fortunate by their decisions and use words and cliché’s such as, ‘’we are all in this together’’, and ‘’there will be a lot of pain etc’’, should reconsider.

Pain can be endured by people who understand why. But when a child or adult with certain disabilities does not understand the reason why they have been made to suffer and why they are to be isolated from their friends, then for parents who witness their suffering and have to explain the situation day in day out, that is real pain.

Councillors should go back to the drawing board and consider that it may cost the local authority more than the perceived saving to fulfil their legal obligations to participants of COPE.

Perhaps they should look further up the chain of command to where the real waste in monetary terms has occurred and is still occurring due to poor decision making and sloppy financial planning rather than penalise the less fortunate in our society.

Robert Sandison
Tripwell
Whalsay