WHILST I appreciate that Cllr Beesley responded to the letter sent in about homelessness, his response was disappointing.

Firstly, the number he lists at the bottom of the article comes with a number of problems, one of those is that they suggest to contact the council, another is that if an individual was at risk of rough sleeping that night, the phone isn't always manned. Finally, it doesn't include over-25s.

He also mentions the homelessness teams who work closely with drug and alcohol treatment services, social care teams, mental and physical health services, but like the outreach, they have been severely cut.

Mental health services have been cut in real terms by around £105 million across the country since 2010, with 62 per cent of trusts in England recording lower incomes in 2016/17 than 2011/12. This is according to research conducted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) last year.

Last year £34 million was cut from drug and alcohol treatment services and local authorities have been told to cut a further £600 million from public health services.

Social care funding has shrunk by approximately £7 billion since 2010 across the country.

There is a degree of understanding over the council's ability to cope with centrally controlled cuts, however, any sympathy evaporates when you consider that they are controlled by the Conservatives; where all the local Conservative MPs have voted for the cuts that are being forced onto local authorities.

MATTHEW CLIFTON

Mudeford, Christchurch