With reference to your story ‘No parade for Helensburgh’s Christmas lights display (Advertiser, November 16) I feel I just had to put pen to paper or rather email to say how disappointed I was to see this story.

Given the amount of money that has been put into the redevelopment of the town and the money that was supposedly left over, I find it very hard to believe £1,000 could not be found.

I also find it very disappointing that this money could not be found from other sources such as local businesses.

But before anyone criticises this suggestion, please read on.

You can’t tell me that local businesses will not benefit from staying open during the Christmas lights switch-on and from the passing trade around the town on the evening.

After so much has been spent on the town over the last couple of years, money that will indeed bring dividends to these businesses in the long term – surely£1,000 is not a lot of money to ask for given there are possibly over a hundred trading businesses within the town.

A letter in last week’s edition mentioned that Helensburgh has the busiest Waitrose in Scotland and gives £1,000 per month to local charities. Well, where are the big names when they are needed – Waitrose, Tesco, Co-op, Subway, Ladbrokes, William Hill, J.D. Wetherspoons to name just a few?

Those businesses alone could raise that £1,000 by contributing just £142.85 each. I bet they will all be happy enough to take your cash over the festive season.

Finally, some of the blame must go to Argyll and Bute Council. They didn’t mention anything like this when they were trying to make a good impression on the TV a few weeks ago, did they?

How much is being wasted on empty buildings in the form of upkeep and security? Along with all the advertising and legal expenses that has been wasted trying to sell such properties?

Enough said. I just think it’s such a slippery slope that Helensburgh town is on. What next, no parade next year in the square? Or even possibly no lights for the parade?

So before this is the end result, come on Helensburgh – pull together before it really is too late.

Graham A. Walker

Via email

Re the letter in the Advertiser of November 16 on parking at the Victoria Integrated Care Centre: I would agree with the writer, Mr Speirs, that there is an urgent need for extra car parking in the area.

My daughter works at the centre, and two weeks ago she left work to discover, in the car park, that the rear end of her car had been completely caved in by some cowardly individual who caused damage of £750 - and never had the decency to report this to the centre’s staff.

So be warned – the crowded car park is definitely not safe. My daughter was left distraught at her car being so badly damaged after she bought it just two months earlier.

Shame on you, whoever you are - and to everyone else, be careful where you park.

Elizabeth Street

Cairndhu Avenue, Helensburgh

More than 1,500 people with Parkinson’s across Scotland are facing unnecessary distress and financial uncertainty because of the UK Government’s insistence on reassessing them for a disability benefit even though their health will not improve.

As well as causing needless anguish, reassessing everyone with Parkinson’s will cost UK taxpayers more than £3 million. These pointless reassessments are being rolled out across Scotland despite the fact that people with Parkinson’s won’t get better.

The support is meant to help people to manage the extra costs of living with a condition, but the reassessments have seen a quarter of people with Parkinson’s losing some, or all, of their award - despite previously being told they’d have their award for life

That’s why Parkinson’s UK is calling on the UK Government to move people with Parkinson’s, who have already been assessed as needing the highest rate of care, to the new benefit without any reassessment.

By 2020 these disability benefits will be controlled by the Scottish Government and we want Holyrood to learn from Westminster’s mistakes. We’ve been promised a compassionate approach to the new Scottish Social Security system. What better way to put that approach into action than by honouring existing awards for people whose condition will not improve.

More than 2,300 people from Scotland have already signed our petition for change and we hope your readers will join us by signing it here: www.parkinsons.org.uk/pippetition

Tanith Muller

Parliamentary and Campaigns Manager

Parkinson’s UK in Scotland

As of Monday the negative impact of Brexit has been further felt as it was decided where two major European agencies, currently based in London, will be relocated to.

The EU member states took the decision, decided by an arcane secret ballot, as to who will grasp the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), as the UK heads out of the European Union.

Both are much sought after prizes, considered to be among the EU’s crown jewels, with the former acting as the umbrella regulator for the EU’s banking system and the latter responsible for the protection of public and animal health through the scientific evaluation and supervision of medicines.

By a member state successfully acquiring these not only is there the cachet of being a regulatory base, but there is the magnetic effect they could have in drawing workers from companies keen to be close to their watchdog.

Nineteen locations have submitted bids to host the EMA; eight want the EBA (Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw), with the Austrian and Irish capitals offering particularly generous free office-space deals, according to insiders.

In 2002, I led a campaign to try and bring Eurojust (the European Justice Agency) to Edinburgh. Ultimately this proved unsuccessful and the agency remained in The Hague in the Netherlands. Never did I think I would see agencies exiting our shores as the UK plummets out of the EU.

Slowly but surely the negative effects of Brexit are being felt, and this is yet another chapter in a story which is destined to have a far from happy ending.

Alex Orr

Via email

Right now, in the Home Office rules, the government doesn’t recognise the close family of refugee children beyond their parents. This means that many children escaping war and violence can’t be safely reunited with their family in the UK without first making a deadly journey in to Europe.

As the UK government works on updating its rules as a result of leaving the EU, an amendment to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill New Clause 53 would make sure the UK’s rules are fixed to stop this needless risk to children’s safety.

As this comes forward in Parliament we hope that MPs will work together to fix this problem. I urge your readers to write to their MP to ask them to add their name to the amendment and voice their support during the debate. Together we can show the world that Britain will not turn its back on those who need us most, including the refugee children with relatives who can care for them in the UK.

Lily Caprani

Deputy Executive Director, Unicef UK

A NEW survey conducted amongst senior hospital doctors, GPs, trainees and charity supporters finds that two-thirds of respondents would not recommend medicine as a career to their children, despite the fact that traditionally it’s been a family career throughout generations.

The survey was released by The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund (RMBF), a charity which helps doctors, medical students and their families, as part of their new ‘Together for Doctors’ campaign.

Whilst the majority of doctors said that they would still study medicine given their time again, 92 per cent think that working conditions in UK hospitals have deteriorated in the past decade, and 93% are concerned by the number of doctors choosing to leave the profession.

Together for Doctors aims to raise awareness of the need to offer support to doctors throughout the UK who are working under increasing difficulty and scrutiny, as well as encouraging doctors themselves to come forward and seek help when they need it.

Doctors work tirelessly to support us all in our times of need, yet worryingly many feel unable to ask for help when things aren’t going well for them. We know that there are many more doctors in this country who could benefit from the RMBF’s help.

I hope that by talking openly about these issues we can encourage more people in need of support to come forward.

Professor Dame Parveen Kumar DBE

President, Royal Medical Benevolent Fund