SIR — I attended Monday November 1's special meeting of the cabinet of Somerset County Council to see how the council's cuts would affect us here in rural West Somerset with our predominantly elderly population.

The arts community was very well prepared and in force. They presented their concerns and made their points with great clarity and determination - together with a well organised and effective outside demonstration.

Their large presence in the auditorium ensured they were taken notice of.

The relatively rather more subdued voices of the representatives of the voluntary sector in respect of the proposed axing of grants to local Councils for Voluntary Service underplayed a devastating scenario, one which could lead to the collapse of many of the support systems that sustain volunteers, all those unpaid and unsung people who give their own time and personal assistance to supporting the many vulnerable and mostly older people in our communities.

It is my opinion that the county's current plans under the leadership of the cabinet member for community Cllr Christine Lawrence are nothing less than an arrow aimed at the heart of the older vulnerable people - and I know this from personal hands on experience.

Twenty years ago, as the local principal officer for social services, I managed the delivery of integrated social services to West Somerset.

This included, among other services, social welfare, child care, psychiatric social work, home care and last - but very definitely not least - the work of the voluntary services co-ordinator.

Without the work of the voluntary services co-ordinator, much of whose work is now done under the auspices of the CVS, it would have been impossible to select and match volunteer to client.

Then, as now, volunteers were a precious resource, often quite elderly themselves. The process of matching was important and supporting and co-ordinating them in their work was essential.

Volunteers then, as now, enabled older people to remain at home, struggling families to stay together and those with mental health problems to survive the isolation mental illness can bring.

Just one example of community benefit would be that well-supported volunteers resulted in less demand for scarce places in local residential homes and consequently a huge saving of taxpayer's money.

We owe volunteers a great debt that is about to be poorly repaid. Helping people to stay in their own home is something the cabinet member for community should be fighting for.

If it was only the web of volunteers that underpins many in our community in West Somerset that was to be undermined, that would be bad enough, but the slashing of bus services on which so many people depend to find and attend work and to attend medical appointments leads inevitably to isolation, anxiety and will increase poverty.

How in a rural area like ours - as Ian Duncan-Smith insists they should - will people be able to take his advice and hop on a bus to the next town for a job?

Cllr Lawrence also proposes, I understand, to close some libraries and severly restrict access to others.

Cllr Lawrence is a Conservative politician. I am puzzled as to what part of David Cameron's idea of the "Big Society' - which rests so much on the idea of community and on the increasing role of volunteers - she thinks she is furthering?

I cannot help but call to mind that when she was leader of the West Somerset Council, she presided for a period over the ruin of its finances which led to the dismantling of services and the inevitable loss of the local swimming pool.

Here we go again!

Ian Galloway,

The Court,

Washford.