SIR, — So Herts County Councillors have decided to increase charges for home care by 40 per cent and day care by 26 per cent (Herts Advertiser, April 10). This must have come as a very unpleasant shock for many people who rely on these services, particula

SIR, - So Herts County Councillors have decided to increase charges for home care by 40 per cent and day care by 26 per cent (Herts Advertiser, April 10). This must have come as a very unpleasant shock for many people who rely on these services, particularly as they will just have received notice of their council tax increases and, coincidentally, read about the large pay rises for senior county council staff.

There is no requirement for the county council to make any charge for these services - it is entirely up to the county councillors who introduced charging a couple of years ago. But you would expect some consultation around such a large increase. The county officer quoted in your article said, reassuringly, that only about 1,100 people will be affected by this latest rise so it does not seem likely that they will be recouping huge amounts of money from such a small group - you might even think that its hardly worth it.

However, readers may remember that one of the reasons put forward by the county councillors who decided to stop providing a day service at the Jubilee Centre in St Albans was that the numbers of people attending had dropped. Well that is what happens when you start charging for services and it will certainly happen again when increases of 40 per cent are introduced. No doubt we can look forward to more service reductions and in the meantime, our local county councillors seem to have very little to say about these matters.

ROMA MILLS,

St Albans District and Herts County Councillor.