Dee Nutt, chairman of Dartmouth Caring and the board of trustees, write:

We are writing to you collectively, as the board of trustees of Dartmouth Caring, in response to Brenna Dickinson's letter, Chronicle, December 16.

She is against the old over-60s restroom being known as the community cafe.

This is the name given to it by Dartmouth Town Council. The name is now being changed by the council in the new year to become Community Corner.

However, the remarks in the letter about the charity are of great concern to us and, as we have so many clients, volunteers, and supporters among the Dartmouth Chronicle's readers, we feel that it is important to correct and challenge what she says.

Dartmouth Caring has not tried 'to take over the running of the community centre'.

We were approached informally, as were the over 60s, by Dartmouth Town Council that hoped, by granting a lease to a charity, to be able to recoup the VAT element of the cost of converting the over-60s restroom into the community cafe/centre.

Although essentially well disposed towards assisting the town council, we were, at best, lukewarm about taking on the obligation of a long lease on the premises and we doubted that Revenue and Customs would agree to the recovery of the VAT that has been paid.

In the event, the town council has not formally approached the charity.

We simply do not recognise the truth of Ms Dickinson's claim that local people are 'disillusioned' by Dartmouth Caring and that it does not have the goodwill of the community that we serve.

Over the last few years, demand for Dartmouth Caring's services has grown hugely and, in response to clear unmet needs, we have expanded our range of services.

The staff of the charity work very closely with the volunteers and health professionals within our community to ensure that our clients have a responsive service that meets their needs.

The growth in the cost of running Dartmouth Caring has fortunately been much lower and this expansion of our activities has only been possible because of the large number of people in our community who so generously donate their time to helping us.

We are greatly indebted to our volunteers, as we are also to the many local people, businesses and organisations who donate money to support Dartmouth Caring's work

It is this visible level of enthusiastic local support that convinces us that Ms Dickinson is wrong when she asserts that Dartmouth Caring does not have the goodwill of the people of the town.

Even more troubling is her claim that Dartmouth Caring is 'frequently referred to as a business rather than a charity'.

We are a registered charity and work in accordance with the Charity Commission's rules and regulations.

She believes that our charges are high and beyond the pockets of many local pensioners.

We wonder which charges she is alluding to. Of all the many services that we offer our clients, the only one for which there is any charge is the weekly lunch club.

We simply do not accept that £5 for a two-course hot lunch and a cup of tea for our members is too expensive and, indeed, this barely covers the cost of the food, the rent of the community cafe and paying our cook.

The staff in the office order and coordinate this weekly event. All others involved in serving the lunches and in clearing up afterwards are unpaid volunteers.

We would like to point out that until September, the lunch club had been running successfully for over 10 years in the Guildhall.

The only other Dartmouth Caring service where money changes hands is driving.

Our volunteer drivers are paid 45p per mile towards the cost of running their cars by the charity.

Our clients make donations towards this cost, if they can afford to do so.

All we advise them of is the cost to the charity of our reimbursement to the driver, it does not cover our full costs for the transport service.

This is emphatically not a charge and such donations are entirely voluntary.

Even those who elect to donate the full 45p per mile are being driven at a cost that is very much lower than taxis and hospital transport.

Donations are made in a sealed envelope, so the amount is unknown and causes no one distress.

Also our drivers wait, often taking clients to the relevant department, and are there to take them back home as soon as they are ready – safely to the client's door.

Hospital transport often requires a long wait for the next vehicle departure time and patients are not always accompanied to their door.

As trustees, we strive to make the donations that Dartmouth Caring receives go just as far as possible.

We do everything to keep operating and administrative costs to a minimum, while maintaining the high level of service and responsiveness for which we believe Dartmouth Caring is well known.

We hope very much that those who support Dartmouth Caring as volunteers and donors will not be deterred from continuing to do so by inaccurate communication.