Tele Postbag: Litter pickers, data centres and Christmas help

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Thank you to litter pickers

I would like to thank and praise a young mum and her two under school age children who live in Tower Drive in Gourock.

Earlier this week when they saw me, an elderly volunteer litter picker, working on a vast amount of litter around the bus stop in Tower Drive, they came out with their miniature litter picks and high viz waistcoats and started to help clear up the mess. 

Well done and thank you for setting an example to others. 

Come on Gourockians: we live in a beautiful place. Let’s not spoil it by dropping litter.

Elizabeth Gray
Tower Drive, Gourock

READ MORE: Tele Postbag: Government's new tax policies will affect us all

‘We’re well placed for data centres’

It is reported that data centres could bring a £44 billion boost to the UK economy. 

Could our representatives through your columns please let the voters know how they intend to proceed in bringing some of these jobs to Inverclyde?

Greenock is well placed to host a Data Centre but we must sell the district to the companies of the future. Our representatives must concentrate on getting these companies to locate in Inverclyde because we have so much to offer.

I am sure that they will all feel that they are making a difference in the activities that they are currently taking part in but this is now urgent. 

Having missed out on the GB Renewables HQ and the proposed hydrogen production facility in Aberdeenshire it is important that we make a bid for data centre storage.

Archie Wilson
Greenock

‘Please help families this Christmas’

Every year, Barnardo’s Scotland supports thousands of children and families across the country struggling to pay for the basics like food, heating, beds and suitable accommodation.

We see children going to school hungry and returning to a cold home. We see how poverty affects a child’s physical and mental health and how it can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Here at Barnardo’s Scotland, we help families to keep the power on and the fridge stocked so that children can grow up safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful. But charities like Barnardo’s can only do so much. 

Research we recently published shows a quarter of parents in Great Britain with children aged 18 and under say they’ve struggled to provide sufficient food for their children over the past year.

Our recent report, ‘Empty plates and cold homes: What it’s like to grow up in poverty in 2024’, also estimates that there could be around 3.4 million children whose parents have struggled to provide sufficient food for them over the past year.

The UK government’s new child poverty taskforce is a glimmer of hope for the thousands of families Barnardo’s supports. But good intentions won’t be enough without bold action, so it is disappointing that the UK Government has not ended the unfair two-child limit on benefits in its Budget. 

Sadly, it is a stark reality that more than one in four children in the UK lives in poverty – that’s nine in every single classroom.

Your readers can help us make a difference to these children by going to our website and donating to Barnardo’s today. Even just a few pounds could help provide nourishing food for a family, money to help cover school essentials or valuable support for a family struggling to make ends meet.

On behalf of all the children and families we support, thank you.

Martin Crewe
Director, Barnardo’s Scotland