Youth service cuts are short-sighted

As any housewife worth her salt could tell you, when the going gets tough and belts have to be tightened there are certain rules that need to be followed in order to get the best possible outcome from the money that is available.

You need to eliminate or cut back on those things that are not necessary to run the household even though they may have brought pleasure and diversion such as holidays, luxuries and the extra night out.

What you don’t do is stop sending little Johnny to school just so you can save a few pounds on his bus fares. The fact is that sending Johnny to school, whatever hardship it may seem at the time is, in fact, helping the future economy of the household because it will enable him to hopefully get a better job when he eventually leaves.

The council have axed the jobs of 12 personal advisors in the Young People’s Service which will give them two-thirds of the budget savings required to meet the government guidelines.

This act not only affects the future of some of the most vulnerable young people in our district but also manages to off-load the wages of those made redundant onto the national government debt by way of benefits, jobseekers allowance etc. The actual savings made therefore throughout the country is minimal and in the meantime a whole council service is obliterated.

Surely a better and fairer system would have been to find the savings across all council departments by getting rid of “non-jobs” such as those currently employed to chase European Union grants or to put on hold the “fact finding” trips by councillors to various other places to see how they are doing their jobs.

In the current economic climate it is very easy to settle for the quick-fix option but let us remember to not lose sight of the fact that we need a good, stable system in place for our future and that of generations to some.

UNA ROBINSON

Edge Lane

THORNHILL EDGE