SIR - It is essential that advice and advocacy is readily accessible to citizens with mental health problems.

However, the outrage at at the county's decision to cut funding for three sites in Worcestershire is to some extent misplaced. Worcester is actually very well served for advice services by comparison with many other cities.

Worcester Housing and Benefits Advice Centre offers advice and support to those with mental health problems, including by appointment and, where necessary, by home visits.

Dial, a disability advice service, is also based in the city centre and employs a specialist welfare rights worker. Many mental health professionals do assist individuals with these issues and it is often possible to get a solicitors' appointment for free for some initial advice.

As regards computer literate individuals who can manage a visit to a library, they can access information online, through the Citizens' Advice Bureau web pages and other advice sites and help forums, useful for researching and fielding questions about benefits and other common advice needs. The future for advice services will be more online than it is today. More members of the public can get information online than was the case a decade ago, when a visit to an advice service's office was the only way to access the information.

In complex cases and ones requiring representation, of course, an adviser is needed and I fully support the important work that the local advice services undertake. But it is sensible for public authorities to decide where modest savings can be made when, so obviously, there are remaining services and information available within the CAB and elsewhere.

Andrew Brown, Worcester.