I WAS pleased to see the report by Emily Allen concerning loss of OAP wardens (Mail, October 13). My mother lives in sheltered housing in Botley where there is a resident warden.

But unfortunately he is now part of the floating warden system.

It was decided with no participation from the residents that his services were no longer needed on a full time basis.

I agree with Andrew Smith's comments: it is false economy and does give a poorer service.

If the fire alarm goes off and there is no warden on site, at times the residents have no choice but to sit and listen to the deafening noise until one of the floating wardens turn up – sometimes travelling in from Abingdon or beyond – to turn it off.

It is essential for the elderly living in sheltered accommodation to have the support of the warden and it is wrong that these services can be taken away without any discussion with the residents.

The resident warden system proved for years that it worked and now more and more housing associations are opting out of this very valuable service.

More elderly people are ending their days feeling lonely and vulnerable and some are sadly dying alone in their flats, nobody realising they were ill in the first place.

It is extremely difficult when dealing with these housing associations to get them to understand that some elderly people, no matter how poorly they feel, just will not pull that cord that we are all led to believe is the answer to everything, because simply they just don't want to be a bother.

Amanda Frost, Cumnor