Sir – Reg Little describes a scheme to alleviate the problems of Oxfordshire’s elderly pensioners by calling on volunteers to “Give an Hour” to help them (Report, February 3).

However, very many of these pensioners are themselves caring for an even more decrepit spouse or other relative, who cannot easily be handed over even to a well-qualified stranger, let alone to a casual do-gooder.

This is one reason for many of us to be horrified that county council vacillation has resulted in the Oxford Carers’ Centre having to close its doors for good in a few weeks’ time.

Many hundreds of people in the city have used the centre, and even now a constant stream of visitors is coming to ask for help and advice.

For legal reasons all records have to be destroyed, so that any successor agency will have to start again almost from scratch, without the advantage of the trust so painstakingly built up over many years by the dedicated staff and volunteers of the Carers’ Centre.

Only the acclaimed Young Carers’ project will survive, thanks to Lottery funding. For adults, in place of the largely part-time and volunteer personnel of Oxfordshire’s three carers’ centres, the county council proposes to install even more public servants, operating a telephone service centre, which few of the pensioner carers known to me would even wish to access.

A vivid case study of how to discourage voluntary and part-time service. So much for the “Big Society”!

Hubert Allen, Old Marston