IS there someone in the Poole and Bournemouth area who can justify the morality, the bureaucracy and public money being spent on Criminal Records Bureau checks?

Recently a Church of England bishop told a national newspaper of how, in the space of a few days, he had to fill in two separate CRB checks after being asked to be a patron of an inter-church young people’s organisation, and then to address a youth rally.

In some cases these checks can take up to four weeks to process.

In Australia I was reliably informed this could be turned around in 48 hours.

Why wasn’t the CRB check transferable?

In this present economic climate, millions of pounds of public money seem to be being squandered.

Meanwhile this current process shows that hundreds of people starting new jobs will be losing income while waiting for the checks to return.

We are now in an age of frugality and the voluntary sector is being expected to ride to the rescue, but the tone of the checks infers that everyone is a would-be criminal. This in turn institutes a culture of fear that destroys trust.

I don’t want to trivialise the trauma some children and vulnerable adults have suffered through abuse but the overkill of the box-ticking will be stopping many hundreds of people who would be otherwise willing to help those less fortunate than themselves.

Community life is badly needed in these times of strife and can only function through trust and love.

If it is broken, it is very hard to get it back.

For the sake of our country and community life, will those in authority heed this call and scale back this destructive way of thinking?

Matthew Bell, Bettiscombe Close, Canford Heath