IT is said the way society treats its elderly defines how civilised it iIf this is true, then after reading recent reports about the abysmal treatment meted out to two pensioners by Gloucestershire County Council and nearer home, our county council's intention to discontinue the daily hot meal service, I can only conclude our bureaucrats are very uncivilised.

Councillor Cheetham's comments that changing to frozen meals' will not affect the nutritional value of the food is little more than smoke and mirrors to hide wider problems.

Apart from the fact that the daily meals on wheels visit by WRVS volunteers is possibly the only contact some elderly folk have with the outside world, has any thought been given to the storage and cooking equipment that will be required?

Not all the old folk have deep freezes and microwave ovens. Will it be possible for those who are visually impaired, not only to read the extremely precise cooking instructions, but also operate the oven's complicated controls?

Will someone who has a hearing impediment be able to hear the timer ping when the food is cooked?

Even if these obstacles are overcome, how will arthritic hands deal with taking piping hot meals from the oven and removing the tenacious film covers?

The government has recently spent a £250,000 telling senior citizens about the dangers of wearing slippers. Will the next quarter of a million be spent on telling them how not to get scalded when opening their meals?

To Councillor Cheetham, et al, I would say that you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves that you have even considered cutbacks in the meals on wheels service.

The health and welfare of hundreds of elderly people will suffer as a result of your penny-pinching. Surely, we owe them more than that.

Way back in AD65 Seneca wrote "The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life." It seems that in 2006, Lancashire County Council has very different ideas.

D WALKER, Barrowford (full address supplied).