DURING a recent meeting with a member of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust I was treated with the utmost respect and dignity.

This, sadly, proved to be an exception to the rule as, being an elderly pensioner in sheltered accommodation, my experience with staff of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust management is that they often tend to talk down to one in an authoritative voice with an assertive manner.

They seem to assume that when one becomes aged the brain is less active and the elderly are incapable of rational thought. Fortunately, in many cases, despite the ageing process, the brain is still active and functions briskly.

The management also fails to grasp that there are those who have held positions with huge responsibility and are still capable of thinking in a rational and logical way.

In other words, they do not slavishly accept what they are told, knowing they have the right to make an informed opinion without it being ignored or simply dismissed.

Elizabeth C Earle,

Dower Court,

William Plows Avenue,

York.

Updated: 09:34 Wednesday, March 09, 2005