I AM writing to you to express my disappointment, in your one sided report in a recent edition.

Your article suggested that the reduction in the council's home help care will force him, and many like him, to retire from work to become carers.

Just because he had recently had private care, for which they only attended for as little as 11 minutes for a 30 minute appointment, your article then tarnished all private agencies with the same brush, which I considered most unfair.

I would like to point out that I have had bad care in the past, that I was not happy with, and the procedure is to complain to that agency and and, if you are still not happy, leave and join another agency!

I did just that and can now honestly say the agency that I am currently with (Allied Medicare) is very professional, caring and clean and tidy in their work and, as for time keeping, I have never been short changed if anything goes wrong, that they arrive slightly late, they work late to make up for it!

So, as for your article, I suggest the gentleman who wrote in firstly complains to his agency for the poor timekeeping and, if it does not improve, then change to one that will give him the services he is paying for. If your newspaper wanted a useful article to write about, it should be concentrating on why OAPs and the disabled are having to find more than the care allowance paid by the benefits agency, while most of them have run their lives on the breadline and done no harm to anyone and, indeed, run their lives to a good moral standard, they now find they have to go cap in hand for money to help them cope in later years.

Many OAPs and disabled receive a benefit of £56 a month for their care, and last July the council increased the charges from £56 to £90.

Although they haven't gone up for a period of time, this was too big of an increase and many now have to go without care and help, because they cannot afford the help they need!

The latest information going round is the council is so short of money for care, it is to withdraw all its help soon, and it will be up to the individual to find anything from about a minimum of £150 to £300 approx a month for a small amount of care, tripling at least the payments for the same service in just two years.

Very annoying, to those with good moral values and have to read newspaper articles about how the Government and councils are paying increasing amounts to teenagers who fall pregnant and single mums who don't seem to be getting told that they will have to find all their own help and costs for themselves, so why victimise the Disabled and OAPs?

Our Government should be helping us all, or telling us all there is no money, not picking and choosing and getting us to fall out with each other because one can have and one cannot.

I look forward to the editor's remarks on this, and what response this article, if published, stirs up, as well as your results/findings from your investigative journalism.

Name & address supplied