PLEASE allow me to use your letters page in order to express the disappointment of all the people who used the facilities at the social centre in Church Street, Bengeworth, which AgeUK in their wisdom have now closed. The centre provided a very pleasant environment for the local elderly people to pop in every day and socialise with each other and once a week they enjoyed a very tasty freshly cooked meal, served by three wonderful volunteer ladies that was cooked by Steve Woodhall the chef.

This closure is all the more puzzling at a time when even the government acknowledge that there are over a million elderly people in this country who are isolated from the community at large and consequently are living very lonely lives without any visitors calling at their homes or sometimes not even having the opportunity to get out into the community to visit other people!

Surely our nation can organise and support groups who help to provide facilities for social inclusive events and venues, thereby helping and encouraging our elderly people to avoid living alone and unwanted in their homes.

On behalf of all the disappointed customers may I say a big thank you to Alison Leggett and her lovely volunteer girls Jean Hopkins and Margaret Barton.

TERRY REID

Broadway.