The plea by Mrs Val Lay to Barnet Council not to close Stonegrove Children’s Centre (‘Sowing seeds for community’ Your Views, February 3), does not include the fact that if this short-sighted action to close the centre takes place, it will increase tomorrow’s financial burden which we will all have to bear.
Increasing pressures on particularly vulnerable, often isolated single parents, could cause stresses that could bring some mothers to breaking point. They would no longer be able to care for their children, passing this responsibility onto costly, local government services.
The council should consider whether the children’s centre could be expanded so it could become a focal point for the whole community including the isolated elderly.
It is now recognised there is a greater chance of lonely elderly people developing Alzheimer’s, which could also mean engaging the costly services of care homes.
The untapped human resource that exists in every neighbourhood, if organised, can provide useful experience in helping to manage centres using volunteers from the community.
Barnet councillors should not make the possible closure of this centre a party political issue. It is really about increasing tomorrow’s financial burden, or applying common sense.
Teddy Gold
retired community worker,
Etchingham Park Road, Finchley
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