I would like to add my comments concerning the proposed charge for the Home Safeguard Alarm System from April. My mother, who is 93, has used this service for many years and it has given her peace of mind so it is not surprising the proposed charge has caused her concern.

I would like to add my comments concerning the proposed charge for the Home Safeguard Alarm System from April. My mother, who is 93, has used this service for many years and it has given her peace of mind so it is not surprising the proposed charge has caused her concern.

I wrote, on her behalf, to East Devon District Council, voicing concern, and, in reply, John Golding, Head of Housing and Social Inclusion, assured me they were committed to supporting older residents and then continued to say, on the same line, they could no longer run the Home Safeguard Service at a cost to the taxpayer. So much for a commitment to the elderly.

I am a taxpayer and I think the elderly should receive support - after all, the government is committed to caring for the elderly in their own homes or does East Devon not support this policy?

Also the article in the paper mentions a spokesman for the council stating that this decision, which was made last year, had been well documented so people should not have been surprised about this change.

However, does well documented mean the papers were available in the bottom drawer in a basement room somewhere in Knowle?

It is a little like the papers relating to the decision to demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace highway in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

This decision is ill-founded and should be overturned. Someone needs to stand up for the elderly because it doesn't look as though their council will.

Keith Vaughan,

29 Trinfield Avenue, Exmouth.