I WRITE on behalf of my mother, who is 85. She has been working as a volunteer at the Gables Coffee Shop for ten years. It is linked to the Gables Care Home in Acomb and is now to close.

She is one of many volunteers who have run this facility since 1989. It is where older people, people with special needs, people with limited finances, come to meet friends and chat over a cup of coffee they can afford and where they do not feel out of place if they linger a long time over one drink.

It has made a profit of £100,000 in the time it has been running, which has been ploughed back into the care home.

For people who have lost their life-time partners, it is a lifeline where they can meet new friends in similar circumstances, where they can feel useful and valued.

If it is closed down then another place must be found in the area or many people will lose that valuable service which in a time of bereavement and hardship is far better than counselling and tranquilisers.

No one it seems has given any thought to the devastation this closure will bring or the far reaching consequences of such action. So come on you penny-pinching bureaucrats, put yourselves in their shoes and re-think your selfish decisions.

Mrs D A Hope,

Thornton-le-Clay, York.

Updated: 08:51 Wednesday, December 21, 2005