“better and more generous communities”

Dear Sir (or should I write “Hi”)


This aged parent, an IT illiterate of 79, found your Jan 26th issue exceptional, ending a week of extraordinary good cheer. My son, Andrew, is autistic and here was Vince Cable M.P. writing of the “new autistic centres” at Whitton and St James, and launching a new charity SOS/SEN, to join Richmond's Three Wings Trust for children with special needs.


The week began with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York making a joint call for “better and more generous communities” - the Church of England calling upon Christians of all dominations, but also challenging those of other faiths and the secularists among us to be equally generous.


Wednesday saw a “Christians in Richmond” meeting in my parish of St Mary Magdalene - but also the Council’s Social Care Scrutiny Committee devoting itself to learning disability, and attended by the Borough Dean, Canon Peggy Jackson, Richmond’s voluntary sector, and its CORLD.


At this Committee, the call was made for a Richmond Appeal to be launched - for some ÂŁ20 million - to be spent on community projects, not least to match the NHS cutbacks hitting the mentally ill and PLDs (as Andrew calls his fellow citizens). And Richmond is rich, with its housing increasing in value by ÂŁ10 billion in the last 5 years, and with the extravagant bonuses recently awarded to city operators and estate agents, many of them living in our community.


But what was of most good cheer was your reports of Richmond's lively teenagers. Their exam results may be below par, but The Attics won a national Rock School competition and the “Informer” carried a picture of Cherie Avis, Youth Parliament Member for Richmond. Cannot Richmond’s teenagers, through that wonderful resource, IT and the internet, add their drive to this Appeal? (My Zambian friend, Sam at smbale@gmail.com, a Twickenham resident, may be able to help).


Lord Brian Rix of Royal Mencap, also had his 83rd birthday on Saturday. The elderly are trying to do their bit, but the future is for the young.


Yours sincerely,






Francis King