Up until now, I’ve kept quiet about the council spending cutbacks.
Principally because, as a solitary codger living alone and on quite a good bus route, I expect to be largely unaffected.
The libraries I use – quite extensively – are those at Ryde and Newport. Ditto the public loos. And then only as a matter of convenience (pun intended) rather than necessity.
Then too, I have no relatives who are disabled and remain myself perfectly mobile – if a bit slower.
So I seem to be bulletproof. At least until the concessionary bus fares come under attack. As they inevitably will.
Protect the disabled
But I have been thinking about it all, as well as reading all the various views from my fellow bloggers. And the one point I believe should be unarguable is that the disabled amongst us should be as far as possible unaffected.
Hard enough to live a reasonable life it you’re confined to home because you can’t walk very far – or at all.
Being myself quite incapable of staying indoors each and every day without banging my head against the wall, I can’t imagine what it must be like sitting and staring at nothing with no relief in sight.
Hard enough too if you can’t carry a shopping bag or manage the buttons on your coat.
Common human decency dictates, surely, that everything that can be done to help those so afflicted should be done.
What should be offered?
So, if only two libraries, at least a communal bus trip once a week, fortnight or month, collecting and delivering the deserving into Newport or Ryde libraries.
If the public toilets are to close, at least leave open the disabled cubicles. One attendant with a van, covering the entire Island could manage to keep those clean and serviced.
In fact I would go further. I would like to see the council spend a few hundreds or even thousands of our money on buying and lending, free of charge, ebook readers to all those that can’t get out at all.
I’ve no doubt there are other things we could do, none costing much, if once we put our mind to it.
