MARK Stead's excellent articles (Campaign to save factory, the Press, January 23, and "We are a family being torn apart for no reason", the Press, January 26) regarding Remploy closing in York deeply shocked me.

Many years ago, Remploy was set up to create meaningful work to disabled war veterans. With employers unwilling to give these war heroes a fighting chance by recruiting them, they were reduced to selling matches or begging on street corners.

The Government at that time felt it was their moral duty to assist - and Remploy, or re-employment, was formed.

My experience working at Remploy was one of very hard work and where production orders were completed on time and to exact specifications. Our customers were highly delighted with our professional service.

Remploy at that time, and until fairly recently, had lucrative Ministry of Defence orders, which gave meaningful employment to its workers.

The Government at that time felt it was their moral duty to assist in giving the disabled a hand-up - not a handout.

How things have changed. The Government of today has forgotten its moral duties and sees only the financial bottom line. This appears, too, to be the present Remploy management stance.

The Government keeps saying that it would be better for disabled people to work in an outside environment.

In an ideal world that would be true, because the disabled (if you look beyond the disability) are excellent value to a prospective employer.

It has been statistically proven, however, that employers recruit in their own image, and the disabled person does not fit in some company profiles.

Even if employment is given the outlook is bleak. Promotion is a rarity and the prospect of remaining the "office junior" is commonplace for disabled staff.

The workforce at Remploy, like those early war veterans, only ask for a fighting chance - a hand-up, not a handout.

Phil Shepherdson, Chantry Close, York.


* The Government says the Remploy factories do not represent value for money. Do we get value for money from the Government and MPs?

They have taken us into two unwinnable and extremely expensive wars. They have squandered money on useless IT projects. They are committed to ID cards, which, given their record, will be late, over budget and useless. They have committed £55 billion of taxpayers' money to a failed bank and they have given us tax credits and continued the Child Support Agency, both of which are disasters.

If our MPs are value for money a lot of people are underpaid. They are paid £60,000-plus a year and get up to £170,000 a year in expenses, for which they provide no receipts.

They get the mortgage on a second home paid by the taxpayer. They have probably the best pension in the country, paid for by Remploy workers and the rest of us.

On top of everything they turn up for work whenever they feel like it. (Watch the Parliament channel; the chamber is nearly always empty.) This Government does not know what value for money is.

B Emmerson, Charles Street, Selby.


* WITH reference to the Remploy site being axed, along with the Huntington Road Day Centre, what on earth is our country coming to?

Both are functional centres for the less fortunate, ie the disabled, giving their all to maintain a dignified existence, while countless others in our society are receiving money by way of benefits they are either not entitled to, or because they are unwilling to work due to the crazy system that allows it.

These people are siphoning off millions of pounds, thereby draining financial resources from genuine people who need it.

This milking the system for all it is worth will continue unless the Government has the backbone to halt this inevitable slide into financial oblivion.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.


* I go to Huntington Road Day Centre, and it closes in May. We haven't been told anything about what is going to happen after it closes.

I am quite angry because no one is coming to the centre and taking our views seriously. There has been a lot of press coverage about the closure of Yearsley Bridge Centre, but very little about Huntington Road Day Centre. This service is just as important.

My friends and I are extremely fed up about asking questions and not getting answers. I am on the partnership board for people with learning difficulties, and even members of this board do not seem to want to tell me what City of York Council intends doing to replace this service.

Becca Cooper, Alder Way, New Earswick, York.