Coun Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes of Tupsley Ward, Hereford, says volunteers pay a penalty for helping (From Hereford Times)

Coun Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes of Tupsley Ward, Hereford, says volunteers pay a penalty for helping

3:00pm Monday 30th January 2012 in Letters

I WRITE on behalf of my recently deceased sister Sandie Taylor and the many people with whom she worked. These were the unfortunate people who were homeless over the Christmas period.

Sandy Taylor, mayoress in 2005-06, gave up much of her time to support Women’s Aid victims, Humanitarian Aid and was involved with Open Door – she became the chairman and raised funds and served breakfast to the needy for the following 16 years.

Three years ago she was instrumental in setting up the night shelter for the homeless at St Peter’s Church House.

This much-needed facility served many homeless people over the Christmas period, providing shelter, bedding, food, shower and laundry facilities on a daily basis.

Medical, housing and in some cases repatriation advice was provided by the housing solutions team working for the Herefordshire Council.

The successful joint working of local government and local community is laudable and saves the council hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenditure as the volunteers, like Sandie give their time, skills and support freely.

My sister died just before Christmas but was delighted that the night shelter service was being extended and running mid- November 2011 to mid-March 2012.

I am disappointed that the volunteers are having to pay unpopular car parking charges that the council is insisting they pay when they are saving the council several hundreds of thousand pounds of taxpayers money – money that can be used elsewhere especially as so many social services budgets are being cut.

This is a flawed decision, penny wise and pound foolish. This limited and flawed decision-making might cause this essential service to be withdrawn in the future, adding significant costs to the council and NHS.

I believe the solution is simple and suggest a car parking exemption disc be distributed and displayed by volunteers resulting in a win-win situation.

My sister would have been delighted and so would I.

COUNCILLOR MARCELLE LLOYD-HAYES, Tupsley Ward, Hereford.