Sir, We were invited to the Peebles Community Council on Thursday, September 11 to discuss the next set of proposed cutbacks Scottish Borders Council are making which will affect Peebles. We voiced our great concern at the impact this will have on our town and pleaded with the community council to inform the residents of Peebles about these changes which are being drafted at present.

At no time during this meeting did we “hit out” at the shortage of people coming forward to lend a hand or that it does not reflect well on the town. We would always welcome anyone to join us and indeed this has been said many times in your columns.

Bonnie Peebles has a committee of eight, a team of eight volunteers and between us we look after the flower beds at Hay Lodge, Northgate, School Brae, Gun Shed, Edinburgh Road, Forest View and Swimming Pool. All these areas were previously the responsibility of SBC and would have been lost due to earlier budget cuts had we not agreed to save them. We created the train beds to add colour and interest on the site of our old railway station. However, as a group, it is not possible to take on any more and we are neither qualified or equipped to do grass cutting, strimming etc. We greatly value and appreciate the support we have in the community which allows us to carry on the volunteer work we do and maintain all our projects to the best standard we can.

We are, etc.

Avril Murray, co-ordinator, and Margaret Wightman, secretary Bonnie Peebles