I AM writing about the proposed closure of Harvey Children's Centre and the proposed decimation of smoking cessation services.

Both are essential services which make genuine and lasting improvement to the lives of some of the most vulnerable and deprived people of the Borough.

The combined saving from both services will be just over £100k p.a. in the short term. The long term cost to the public purse of making these savings could potentially run into the millions (health care, criminal justice, welfare, etc).

It seems like not so long ago that the council voted in favour of using £40m of its vast reserves to prevent cuts to essential services. If these services do not qualify for a slice of that money then I'm baffled as to what will.

If that money has already been spent then perhaps one of the Cabinet would be kind enough to break ranks and make public what it has been spent on.

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