Thank God for Age Concern, The Argus and a nosey person in a wheelchair.

I really despair with the Brighton and Hove City Council.

I come to Hove twice a year to visit my parents, both of whom are disabled, but comfortably off.

They have a live-in carer and when I visit my parents I am able to look after them while she gets a well-earned holiday.

Luckily my parents are well looked after but at times they need advice. For the past three weeks I have been trying to find out how my parents can get a holiday while their carer goes into hospital for minor surgery.

The carer had heard of an organisation called The Disabled Advice Centre in Hove Manor. I rang the number, but like everything nowadays there was just an answerphone.

I left several messages but no one returned my call, so I went to the offices to be greeted with the message "closed because of staff shortages".

In desperation I went to the council offices in Norton Road, because I was returning to Australia at the weekend and wanted to get this issue sorted out before I left the UK.

While I was at the desk explaining my predicament to the receptionist, a man in a wheelchair came up right next to me. At the time I thought he was being rather rude but having heard all my conversation, he informed us both that The Disabled Advice Centre no longer operates and the best advice I would get was from Age Concern in Brighton.

Within two hours Age Concern had given me some telephone numbers and I had booked my parents into a hotel that caters for disabled people. I returned to the council offices and explained what had happened and to ask why if there were shortages in one department, staff could not be relocated to another.

How does The Argus come into all this? Well, back home I am able to read the newspaper online, but it is not the same as having the paper in your hand, so once a week my parents send it to me.

From reading the news it seems the council is in a mess, and I can see why. Thank you Age Concern in Brighton, you saved my life.

  • Fiona H Turner, Alice Street, Sydney, Australia