Sir, -I am writing in response to the article (October 31) regarding Perth and Kinross Council’s ongoing review of Beechgrove, Parkdale and Dalweem residential care homes.
I would challenge the plan to reduce the care options for the elderly of Perthshire and the rationale given, that more people are choosing to have care at home or alternatively require nursing care. Care at home is not suitable for everyone.
My mother-in-law stayed at home until the age of 93 with support of a home care package. She could have up to 10 different carers visit in a week, for just 15 minutes.
She has happily been a resident at Beechgrove care home since March 2015 and has received first class care, activity and company crucial to her quality of life.
Given the predictions that the 85+ population will double by 2037, closing the few council-run residential care homes available would surely be short-sighted and not in line with the vision of delivering the right care, at the right time and in the right place.
I would urge the council to think carefully and do all they can to keep these first class care homes open.
Our elderly population deserve the highest quality of care.
Sheila Harris.
25 St Magdalenes Rd,
Perth.
Legal advice can’t be hidden
Sir,- Highland born John Kerr (Baron Kerr of Kinlochard), one of the most brilliant British diplomats of his generation, wrote Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty when he was our ambassador and Permanent Representative to the European Union.
So it could hardly be more serious for Theresa May than have him accuse her of misleading the British public on the reversal of Brexit and of suppressing the release of legal papers which clearly prove the UK still has a choice about whether to proceed.
The fact is many European politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President of the European Council, Donald Tusk have indicated “the door remains open” if Britain wishes to change its mind.
It’s difficult to see how Mrs May can continue to refuse to publish the legal advice she received that leaving the European Union can be halted if MPs judge a change of mind is in the national interest – after all, Westminster is not Holyrood!
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Stracathro: our memories differ
Sir, – I was concerned to read in The Courier (November 2) that in her pitch to Angus Council regarding potential appointment to NHS Tayside Board, Ms Julie Bell ‘spoke of a health career involvement at local, regional and national level, highlighting her work as a strategic director of NHS 24 and as part of the strategic review team which saw Stracathro Hospital retained in the early 2000s’.
The implication that she, as a member of NHS Tayside Strategic Review Team, helped to retain Stracathro Hospital is of concern. This is not as I recall the then situation.
Some individuals at NHS Tayside at the time of the Acute Service Review were determined that Stracathro Hospital should close.
It was saved by the people of the Angus and the Mearns who supported the Save Our Stracathro Hospital (SOS) campaign, which was led by the Angus and Mearns Action to Save Stracathro Group, Brechin and District Patients Association and the Stracathro Hospital Staff Action Committee.
The determination of the people of Angus and the Mearns, the 25,000 signatures and the unity of purpose of the Stracathro Hospital Actions Groups saved this important Angus hospital and helped retain many of its services.
I am surprised council leader Bob Myles, given his active involvement as a member of Angus and Mearns Action to Save Stracathro Group, did not seek to correct the erroneous assertion that NHS Tayside Strategic Review Team ‘saved’ Stracathro Hospital.
Given the current turmoil with national, regional and local government, it is high time those who ‘govern’ deal in facts not fiction.
Ronald N Macdonald.
28 Church Street,
Carnoustie.
How old is your whisky really?
Sir, – It’s said a fool and his money are soon parted, as the silliness of a £7,000 dram proves. Having been “in whisky” for years, the nonsense of aged whiskies is worrying.
Bottles displaying their age on the label inherit that age by virtue of the parent cask in the warehouse which, when “filled”, is stencilled with the date and title of the distillery and laid by. But if a cask is found to have “lost” content, the level is brought up by simply robbing another cask, and the age of the donor cask isn’t bothered about.
I remember a filling many years ago where a large number of casks leaked overnight. A length of garden hose did the trick in the morning and by the way, with the excise officer’s blessing.
So buyers beware.
J.R. Smith.
44 Glamis Road,
Kirriemuir.
