“It’s always the most vulnerable people who are affected,” says John McNeill Opportunity Centre manager Angela Bryant.

She makes a very good point While politicians tell us the economy is recovering, we’re coming out of recession and people are getting better off, it’s hard to see where exactly that recovery is making itself known to the average person on the street.

It may be that the City and the corridors of Whitehall can see the improvement, but for the ordinary citizen who hasn’t had a pay rise in years, the cost of everything is still rising while services are being cut.

We are told the Government is taking steps to get the economy back on track, but at what price?

The cuts are being passed on to charities, local councils, to our emergency services and to the people they serve.

At the very bottom of the pile, it seems, are those people who need the most help and support – those with learning difficulties and disabilities, the elderly and the very young.

Youth centres, care and respite homes and children’s services are all struggling to keep going, if they are even given the option of trying.

When questioned about the future of the disabled people who call Salisbury’s threatened Douglas Arter Centre their home this week, the charity Scope said it was a matter of giving them “greater choice and control over the services they receive”.

How much of an informed choice can be made by people with severe learning disabilities who are unable to speak up for themselves or to understand why their home is being taken away from them?

Or by a pre-school child with Down’s syndrome playing at the John McNeill Centre.

As Mrs Bryant says, these are the most vulnerable in our society, and it shouldn’t just be left to their families and carers to stand up for them.