Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre facing closure

Time running out for award-winning Centre

DrylawNC1

Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre seems set to close following confirmation that funding to run the Centre is to be slashed. Five members of staff will lose their jobs if the Centre – the only purpose-built community centre in the Inverleith ward – closes after having served the local community for twenty years. Continue reading Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre facing closure

Letters: False economy of funding cuts

NEDAC to close (2)

Dear Editor

Cuts in funding local authority services are happening again this year and will affect every person in varying degrees and add to the contraction in public services: services that are necessary and needed.

There are also other services provided daily by other organisations, mostly run by volunteers with some financial help from the council: these too are facing drastic cuts. Day Care clubs, lifelong learning and literacy classes, mentla health support,, befriending, support and information services, classes of all kinds and -very importantly – community transport to and from activities.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are helped out of isolation every week with all the benefit – both mental and physical – stemming from these services. Curtailing existing funding to these organisations is not only false economy but will see a deterioration in the health of those people affected, causing a far greater expenditure in other health and care costs.

The councils must rethink their attitude to these services – and, above all, their attitude to PEOPLE.

A. Delahoy, Silverknowes Gardens

Letters: look beyond the label

Dear Editor

Anyone who proposes a solution to a work/life problem from a trade unionist or socialist point of view is rapidly given the label of ‘trouble-maker’ or ‘agitator’. This tactic is far easier to use than advancing an opinion on the issue.

Industries and businesses want to make as much profit as possible, employees want decent wages and conditions of employment and it is inevitable that a dispute will arise at some point over these issues.

Sensible employees have a trade union organisation to speak for them while the employers normally belong to an organisation that supports them. Sometimes no agreement is reached, and the only option left for the employee is the withdrawal of labour which, as a free person and not a slave, he/she is fully entitled to do.

This is where the tactics of giving labels is stepped up by some media to isolate the strikers in the eyes of the general public. This negative approach is used not only in disputes but across a wide range of issues that affect all our lives.

Despite this, however, much progress has and can be made if one looks beyond this divisive tactic and realise that next time, it could be you.

A. Delahoy, Silverknowes Gardens