A Northern Spin Town!

by  Andrew Wastling

THIS year's Empty Homes Week (23rd September 2019 - 29th September 2019) has raised national awareness of the latest Government data showing that over 216,000 homes in England have been empty for over six months. In all, over 600,000 homes are currently vacant. We of course all know that we live in the midst of a local and national affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The report ‘Empty Homes in England’ the 2019 edition was published on Monday September 23rd without a solitary mention in our local media outlets.   That in itself tells it's own story of the Mainstream Medias reluctance to speak truth to power or even to maintain the pretence of investigative journalism free of editorial compromise or content filtering at the behest of their advertisers corporate sponsors & invested vested interests.   I could go on but am sure I don't need to especially to readers of Northern Voices.

For those who might have missed it in the local Press the  latest public statistics for Rochdale showing  that there were in 2017 858 long term empty properties.

In 2018 there were 854 long term empty properties , a reduction of just six in twelve months out of a total of available 93,986 properties .

I would just like to ask Rochdale Council how long these properties are likely to remain empty before they are brought back into use to meet the chronic housing need for local families waiting to be re-housed but feel almost certain a reply will not be sent anytime soon. In fact in Rochdale there is not even a mandatory time period for local councillors to reply to a question from their constituents. This tells you all that is needed about local democratic accountability  - There isn't any!

The local housing crisis has got steadily worse and yet those councillors tasked with standing up for their constituents have never been held to account for their serial failures to address the chronic housing shortage . This despite , most reasonable people would think have thought, having a roof over ones head, being a basic expectation from the voters of their council representatives ?

Currently if all of the people currently on Rochdale Councils waiting lists stood one person per step on St.Chads 122 stone steps they would now go up and down our towns historic landmark almost 54 times! That's a total failure of housing policy in my book.

Where precisely are Rochdale Councils priorities in spending over £250 million on town centre regeneration which is supposed to produce a 'magic trickle' down effect to our local citizens many of whom are reliant on food banks to simply ward of malnutrition or becoming increasingly dependent on GP prescribed opiates disparagingly referred to in some quarters as ' hillbilly heroin to numb the pain and blur them into a sense of false well-being?

We are seeing all around us the collapsing failed experiment of Neo Liberalism begun in the 1980's under Thatcher & Regan & transformed under Cameron, May , & Johnson into the kind insane Kamikaze turbo charged disaster capitalism of the present.

Proof, if proof be needed that this spectacularly and repeatedly spun fake regeneration is little more than insidious creeping regeneration is found in the latest publication this week of the indices of deprivation which placed Rochdale as the twentieth in the UK for poverty. It is no accident surely that a staggering 19 out of 20 of local authorities with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods among the most deprived in England are based in the north of the country. Little was made in out local media of the fact that despite millions spent on Rochdale by succeeding councils that The English Indices of Deprivation report, compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, assessed the level to which local authorities lack income, employment, education, and adequate housing, as well as the level of crime and services in across the UK and found Rochdale sadly languishing behind once again.

Were Rochdale a state and not a town it would be difficult not to describe it as a 'Failed State' using Chomsky's definition: they suffer from a serious 'democratic deficit' that deprives their formal democratic institutions of real substance. One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror.  If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of 'failed states' right at home.'

Sound familiar? It does to me. This is a town where many things  people and institutions are quite simply broken.

Fot the official recorded the top twenty areas with the most deprived neighbourhoods in England are:

1. Middlesbrough 2. Liverpool 3. Knowsley 4. Kingston upon Hull 5. Manchester 6. Blackpool 7. Birmingham 8. Burnley 9. Blackburn with Darwen 10. Hartlepool 11. Bradford 12. Stoke-on-Trent 13. Halton 14. Pendle 15. Nottingham 16. Oldham 17. North East Lincolnshire 18. Hastings 19. Salford

20. Rochdale.

These are deeply inconvenient facts for our councillors who would much rather they were discreetly wept under the carpet along with the beggars on our streets who are a glaring testimony to their abject failure as policy makers in our town each and every time one of them engages in conversation with a local voter or shopper.  They all of course as do we all have background stories.  Stories which when you trouble to listen do not paint our council who implemented Tory Austerity though the back door of our Town Hall without even token resistance or our councillors who capitulated without dissent, then voted through cuts to essential front line services  without any real understanding of how those closed local services would eventually impact on community cohesion.  They after all would in most cases not be personally dependent on such public services, be on the receiving end of such hatchet jobs to the social infrastructure and were in any case financially cushioned from penury by over the odds publicly subsidised councillor expenses.  Indeed whilst voting in harsh cuts for the rest of us one  of their first steps to protect themselves in the hard times they knew were coming was to feather their own nests and vote in an inflation busting pay rise in their councillor expenses for themselves. Nice work if you can get it comrades !

Many of our street beggars however were on  the receiving end of over a decade of tory austerity.  Its no surprise they are there on our pavements to anyone who has been follow political and economic events since the corporate elites crashed the economy and then paid off their cocaine bills and balanced their accounts on the backs of the poor .

Whilst  vital Public Services being butchered we simultaneously witness  expensively financed utopian shopping units intrude into the Rochdale skyline ad nauseum across the town centre  clearly someone has found a magic Money tree?  We also see  or more accurately those who bother to look can see  , dystopian near Victorian poverty & homelessness levels increase locally and people in despair frozen like zombies on the new psychoactive substances  (or 'Spice' ) hidden away in the  ginnels alleyways and shadows where the Council spin merchants never go or more to the point don't even know exist . 

A  Freedom of Information Request showed that in 2017 know Rochdale Council recorded 945 homelessness presentations ,205 homelessness advice presentations from people age 16-25yrs for the same period. Whilst in the last quarter the Council recorded 65 homelessness presentations from people aged 16-25yrs. 

We also know that the number of people waiting on the current waiting list for Social Housing is in 2017 now 6,374 households  - this is a crisis that is getting steadily worse , not better. It can not be logical , morally justifiable , or economically viable to have so many properties remain unused for so long,  or to have highly controversial proposals to demolish at least four of the College Bank Tower Blocks whilst we still have so many local families waiting to be housed languishing on waiting list for years.   This simply does not make any kind of sense.

It does however make economic  and environmental sense to bring empty properties into public use since creating homes from empty properties saves substantial amounts of material compared to building new homes, minimises the amount of land used for development and avoids wasting embedded carbon; helping to combat climate change and providing a proactive step our council can take immediately to give some credibility to their recent declaration of a Climate Emergency at the Town Hall. 

Another immediate proactive step our Council could take could take would be  to restore the Council Environmental Sustainability Team they axed due to Austerity measures , retain some of the largest solar panels in the North of England currently on top of the Seven Sisters instead of demolition them and finally recognise and admit publicly that one of the worlds largest & most toxic asbestos dumps in the world on our doorstep should  have alone merited the calling of an environmental emergency in Rochdale several decades ago.

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Declaration of Human Rights:

Are we in violation?
Everyone has Right to Free Speech!

by John Wilkins

MANY of us in this country believe passionately in freedom of expression within the law.  Is this the situation today?  I would argue no.

If we truly had such a freedom why is it often difficult getting your views listened to and getting them published even more so. 
 
In the case of the local media there is a diminishing ability to express your views particularly if they are challenging to those in power in our Town Halls.  Letters columns in my local papers are almost non-existent and the local on-line paper is becoming more cautious in its reporting.  Many feel that its reliance on advertising revenue from our local council could be a reason.

However it is also on the national stage that there is an in-balance in reporting important issues, largely because the print media is 80% dominated by papers with what appears a right wing bias. Many fear the BBC treads cautiously at times so has to not upset the powers in Westminster.

You may disagree with me but I will give one example which concerns the vendetta, not too strong an expression in my view, against Jeremy Corbyn.  On the phone to a friend he mentioned a newspaper he had just seen which contained no less than 13 articles detrimental to Corbyn, plus 3 attacking the Labour Party.  I write not as a member of Labour nor any other but I would like to see more balanced reporting, surely there are more issues to be discussed than attacks on one politician, like him or loath him?

A friend has tried to create a newspaper with more left wing views to counter some of the bias in our press and that includes holding our local Labour run Council to account as well as the Conservative Government.  Sadly his criticism of the local Labour leader of Council incurred the wrath of a the then chair of his CLP.  This escalated into criticism of a front page of my friends newspaper which was construed as anti-Semitic and the flames were fanned by right wing blogger,  Guido Fawkes.  As a result fury from the Board of Deputies gave ammunition for Labour to suspend him.  This was overturned on appeal but other contributors were targetted for abuse on social media, including a MEP, some were threats of violence and warnings that MOSSAD knew who they were.
Fast forward several months and a meeting was organised to discuss creating more media outlets expressing left wing views.  Here is where the UN declaration of Human Rights would appear to have been violated by sections of the Jewish community.

Article 19. 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.'

Article 20. (1) 'Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.'
Over a dozen venues were approached and all bowed down to pressure not to allow the meeting on their premises.  The meeting did happen despite this this opposition.  The venue was kept secret until the last minute but a bogus venue was picketed by protesters.  One lone photographer from the Jewish Chronicle did appear but as the turn out was low and the meeting late starting he was fobbed off by being told that the meeting was probably not going to take place.
It did, albeit with a small audience, but including many who had travelled from as far as Devon, London and N. Wales.  Some had no particular political allegiance. Indeed a friend of mine persuaded his politically disinterested wife to attend and she is now a passionate supporter of Jeremy Corbyn!
Whatever your political views I hope you share with me the concerns I have raised and the report published only last year by Reporters without Borders, which campaigns for journalistic freedom.  They placed the UK 40 th. out of 180 countries on its World Press Freedom Index. Some of the countries ranked above us include 'Uruguay, Samoa and Chile for restrictions on reporters seeking to hold power to account'. (The Guardian Wed. 25 April 2018)
As we approach the 200 year anniversary of Peterloo, which captured the imagination of the national press and led indirectly to creation of the then Manchester Guardian a few decades later I wonder if we have come as far as we should in terms of freedom of expression.
Listen to the words expressed about freedom of expression centuries ago:
"The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech."  Voltaire.

“I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It”.

(Attributed to Voltaire, but whilst he expressed such sentiments it was first published by English writer/ historian, Evelyn Beatrice Hall without quotation marks in her book about Voltaire and is now claimed to be her words.)
People in the UK have the right to free speech including Boris Johnson, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage as well as those on the Labour left even if they are sometimes careless in their choice of words.  One exception is that if those words can be construed as incitement to violence.  One thing I have noted is the violent rhetoric of the far left and the far right and the pro Israel lobby.  Even the calm, reasoned words of outgoing leader of the Lib Dems, Vince Cable were lambasted cruelly by the far left for daring to claim Manchester could be doing more to eradicate rough sleeping in Manchester.  Yet one Labour councillor's solution had been to arrest and fine those he termed aggressive beggars!
Please, those of you who believe in democracy and freedom of expression speak out when those values are threatened, but do so in a calm reasoned manner.
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Rochdale Councillor proposes cashless society . . .

  many locals  are there already!

by Anonymous 

24/05/2019  

IN the current edition of Manchester Confidential  the 'economist & Labour councillor' John Blundell argues with some conviction, (and no little irony I feel), that : 

'There is a whole industry involved in the printing, moving and securing of the nation’s cash and hundreds of millions of pounds will be saved by its eradication. Surely this money can be put to better use by helping those excluded from what should be a human right: access to a bank account and access to credit.

Further to this, strict privacy laws must be introduced to stop the government from peering into the accounts of people trying to obtain benefits. This is so that the long term unemployed, those in unstable employment or people without great means can have rainy day funds that aren’t eaten up by the benefits office when signing on, or for any other reason one might need a private cushion.'

A 'private cushion' indeed ?  For too many of our local citizens a hand to mouth existence is little more than soggy piece of cardboard to sit on as their only cushion for the economic reality of a cruel & brutal  economic system .  

'Some Groups', Blundell continues enthusiastically , 'mainly the very young and the old, will find it difficult to adapt and will need greater support. Sweden – that country famed for its uncaring laws and state – expects to go cashless by 2023 and is sorting out the ills of its society now so that the poor, the old and the disadvantaged don’t have to be at the sharp end of cash’s demise.' 

https://confidentials.com/manchester/cash-vs-cashless-daft-and-discriminatory-or-smart-and-inevitable

Councillor Blundell appears oblivious to the fact that for many in Rochdale the  'cashless society' is already a daily reality.  Particularly for those sanctioned by the DWP or in the midst of the interminable six week wait for Universal Credit.  As my contribution to the ongoing debate on the demonization and criminalisation of the Boroughs homeless & vulnerable by elements within Rochdale Labour Party who appear to have little or no clear understanding of the national homeless crisis could I take this opportunity to urge Councillor Blundell to open his eyes and urge his fellow Labour Councillors to affiliate to the national Labour Homeless Campaign an excellent and humane organisation who's web page proudly proclaims , that :

' Labour Homelessness Campaign have met and heard the stories of people on the streets across the country.  In Manchester, we met Jess – pregnant, homeless, and with no access to homeless services. Within 10 minutes we met four more people experiencing rough sleeping. They described being ‘harassed’ by the police and being fined and taken to court under the Vagrancy Act.

Labour Homelessness Campaign are calling for an end to this draconian policy and the criminalisation of homeless people. The mistreatment of homeless people is everywhere. As Labour members, we need to tackle this within our own party, first by working where Labour are already in power to ensure shelter for all.

An inhumane ‘move them along’ mentality is growing. In Westminster, rough sleepers have been moved on from the little warmth they have found, as it is suggested they disturb MPs getting to work. Two policies are in effect to this end: the Vagrancy Act, and Public Service Protection Orders (PSPO’s).

A study by the charity Crisis showed that 73% of rough sleepers experienced criminalisation in the last year. Between 2014 and 2017, 6,518 people were found guilty under the nearly 200-year-old Vagrancy Act and punishments can range from a fine to up to six months’ imprisonment. There is little that feels so blaringly idiotic as fining those who are homeless for being on the street.

Much like this outdated policy, PSPOs also allow councils to fine people. At least 60 councils have them in place. When Manchester City Council recently launched their PSPO consultation Andy Burnham claimed “it’s not about criminalising people who are sleeping rough or people who have got nowhere else to go.” Yet it explicitly identifies “putting up tents, seeking charity and other behaviour associated with rough sleeping” as reason to be served a PSPO – behaviour that is inevitable for many experiencing homelessness.

Slapping fines on people experiencing homelessness is never the answer. Rather than driving people out of city centres with PSPOs, Labour local authorities should be defending the rights of rough sleepers to exist in public spaces like anyone else. As the Labour Homelessness Campaign, we advocate for an approach of care, not criminalisation.

Empty properties serve no value to society. We should be helping lives, not landlords. Homeless people need homes and the right to exist in public spaces. What is really damaging society after all: a tent for temporary accommodation, or 597 homeless people dying on our streets whilst houses stay empty? 

Perhaps  John and his fellow 'socialists ' in Rochdale CLP can after listening to informed opinion finally show some solidarity with the  Borough's homeless & dispossessed victims of over a decade of Tory Austerity and add their names to the Labour Homeless Campaigns Open Letter ? Which states :

End the criminalisation of the homeless

As Labour Party members, and supporters, we welcome the announcement by the Labour leadership that it will repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act once the Labour party is in government, but more needs to be done to end criminalisation of homelessness. The Vagrancy Act makes it a crime to sleep 'in any deserted or unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart of waggon, not having any visible means of subsistence'. People can be fined up to £1,000 and given a two-year criminal record under an act which specifically targets the most marginalised in our society, and thousands face arrest every year. 

The Vagrancy Act is just one segment of a system of criminalisation of people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping. Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) can make it illegal to beg or sleep rough within a given area. A raft of other ‘anti-social behaviour’ measures, from Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) to dispersal orders, give police and councils powers to move rough sleepers on, or give them a hefty fine. A study by the charity Crisis showed that 73% of rough sleepers experienced some kind of criminalisation in the last year. People experiencing homelessness can be intensely vulnerable. Too often these measures trap people in a cycle, faced with fines they cannot pay and with a growing mistrust of those official council services they should be turning to for help. 

No more can we threaten to fine people who have nothing. No more can we accept legislation which targets rough sleepers as criminals, when they are far more likely to be victims of harassment, violence and abuse. We're calling for an end to the Vagrancy Act, and for councils and police forces to cease using all measures which ban begging and rough sleeping or target those experiencing homelessness. 

Homelessness is effectively a criminal offence. We’re demanding a different approach.'  

On the day that Britain's 'Plastic Thatcher' was forced from office the history books will recall no doubt less the crocodile tears of a failed PM but the shaming statistics published within hours of the Premiers resignation speech ,stating : 'child homelessness has increased by a staggering 80% since the Conservative Party came to power in 2010 ' (The Independent ) and that:

'Thirteen of the 15 local authorities worst affected by homelessness are run by Labour.

 'Labour councils are faced with an enormous challenge but also an opportunity for radical, empowering, socialist homelessness policies. This is an opportunity to show what socialism in power can mean.' (The Fabian ).  

History is as we know an unruly and at times unpredictable student. However their can be little doubt that the future - if there is to be one - will not look back with grace or particular favour on the outdated attitudes and actions of many within our local political class who will be held up to critical scrutiny & opprobrium for their inoffensive & insensitive views on the homeless in the same way we look in contempt with those in the past who were apologists for the hated means test , the Workhouse and the dumping of the poor or the infirm on the other side of the County Parish Boundary. It really is time Rochdale Council got with the programme and heeded calls from progressive voices such as Labour Councillor Shaista Aziz who wrote in the latest edition of The Fabian :  
'The Labour Homelessness Campaign is a grassroots group of Labour members who are acting in solidarity with people experiencing homelessness. We’ve seen the incredible work that’s being done on the ground by overstretched homelessness services. But we’ve also identified a problem: for many experiencing homelessness, there has been a breakdown of trust with officialdom.

As a Labour councillor, it has been saddening for me to speak to rough sleepers who do not believe their Labour council or official homelessness services are on their side.  It has been maddening to talk to grassroots homelessness campaigners around the country who have found themselves campaigning against the policies of their Labour council.  While I know as well as anyone the incredible pressure austerity has put on council budgets, it’s time for us to start listening to these voices.

People on the streets are often treated like criminals, all too often by Labour councils.  The 1824 Vagrancy Act means rough sleepers or those begging can be fined up to £1,000, imprisoned and given a criminal record.  Thousands of people are prosecuted under the act every year – most for ‘aggressive begging’.  The definition of ‘aggressive begging’ in some local authorities includes begging within 10 metres of an ATM.

In addition to this, a raft of antisocial behaviour legislation is used against people experiencing homelessness. Public space protection orders (PSPOs) can make it illegal to sleep rough or beg in certain areas.  We’ve worked with people handed community protection notices (CPNs) threatening £20,000 fines for sleeping rough.  Criminal behaviour orders (CBOs) and dispersal orders can also be used by councils and police to drive rough sleepers out of certain areas. Seventy per cent of criminalisation experienced by rough sleepers isn’t formal application of these criminal orders but rather informal ‘moving-on’ or threats of further action.  When we use these orders we are driving the very people who have nowhere else to go out of our public spaces.

This is why the Labour Homelessness Campaign is campaigning for an end to all forms of homelessness criminalisation.,

When we wonder will the penny finally ever drop with Rochdale Councillors like Blundell and those like him ?

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Comment on the importance of being a Blundell

 "What's picking a lock compared to buying shares?  

What's breaking into a bank 

compared to founding one?  

What's murdering a man 

compared to employing one?" 

 

From the 'Threepenny Opera' by Bertolt Brecht

************ 

Before red banner Cllr. Blundell is wearing glasses looking
adoringly at his bearded mate

AN Anonymous comment  on this NV Blog questions the arguments of Rochdale Councillor John Blundell with regard to his views on homeless beggars.  'Anonymous' cites the finding of the End Child Poverty Coalition that 'child poverty in Central Rochdale (After Housing Costs) at a staggering 57.04% and for Rochdalr as a whole at 45% (some 14,198 local children)'.

 

Then 'Anonymous' asks what is the opinionated Cllr. Blundell's view on this problem given that statistics are now suggesting that child poverty is so significant?  

 

'Anonymous' must know that Rochdale's Councillor Blundell holds the cabinet position for Regeneration, Business, Skills and Employment under the Labour administration of his leader Cllr. Allen Brett.  Cllr. Blundell has some ideas about how to discourage homeless beggars based on his economic theories, and in an article written in Manchester Confidential in December 2017 he announced some of his simple text book views:

'The fundamental principle of economics is that people, or agents as we like to call them, respond to incentives.'   

Then Cllr. Blundell tells us:

'Often money is the means of incentivising people to do things they wouldn't opt to do otherwise, like work. Conversely it is also used to disincentivise things we like to do but shouldn’t, like smoking, which is heavily taxed.'

Last week, sitting in the Flying Horse pub, I remembered these words by Blundell as I watched him ensconced at a table outside in Rochdale Town Hall square stuffing himself in the company of a woman I believe to be the new Kingsway Labour Cllr. Elsie Wraighte.  What, I wonder, would 'disincentivise' the already pleasingly plump Cllr. Blandell from eating too much?

Or what was it that was incentivising last January when he became a non-executive director of the Manchester Airport Group?  At the time Cllr. Blundell declared : "I am ecstatic that I have been chosen to join the board at Manchester Airport Group as a non-executive director and look forwarding to being part of the major growth the Airport is currently going through.”

Indeed, the local beggars may wonder with the playwright Bertolt Brecht:  'Why be a homeless beggar when you can be a Labour Councillor and non-executive director like Councillor Blundell?'   After all, even when the councillor is an electoral fraud like Councillor Rana from Spotland and Falinge, or an unbelievable witness like Cllr. Richard Farnell, or a philanderer like the former disgraced Rochdale Labour MP, Simon Danczuk; a spirit of tolerance prevails rather than any attempts to 'disincentivise' their waywardness, and this  seems to have become very much part of the culture among the Rochdale councillors of all parties.  Indeed, recently  Cllr. Blundell even sort to defend the dalliances of Simon Danczuk saying what he did was 'Only Human!'.

Given their recent political history the Rochdale councillors, all of them, should really be asking themselves what kind of example they are setting to anyone?

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Aspects of local begging & the homeless

   E-mail to Councillor X & a reply!

NV Editor:  

THE e-mail below from John Wilkins of BOLD (Build. Our Local Democracy Group) is addressed to a Rochdale Labour councillor.  This correspondence has been inspired by the recent posts on this NV Blog about Rochdale Cllr. Blundell views on homeless beggars.  The e-mail exchange below is self explanatory and addresses the concerns with regard to homelessness and the impact of local begging.  The name of Councillor X has been redacted by John Wilkins.  

We can ony speculate on why Mr. Wilkins thought it necessary to redact the Labour councillors name.  But we have decided to respect his decision and to publish the email exchange anyway.  One thought that occurs to us about the need to redact of Councillor X's name, is that Mr. Wilkins wishes to protect the Labour councillor from any possible backlash.  If this is the case then it seems to suggest that politics in Rochdale is somewhat unhealthy.

******

 Dear iiiiiiii

 Thank you for those reassurances. I hesitate to bring up a related issue because you have responded more times to my communications over a short period of time you have been in Council compared with all my local councillors collectively over the last 5 years. 

  In a rare visit to Rochdale I visited St. Mary in the Baum Church ostensibly to see the work of 'Caring and Sharing' only to find I was on the wrong day but I was able to see the good work being done by the Red Cross in Rochdale.  From there I walked up Yorkshire Street to do business in a couple of banks.  I passed a man sat outside the Halifax who although he do not ask for money, had a cup in front of him for money. Further up I passed a man offering to shine shoes for payment and someone else getting prepared to busk for money.  On my return from the top of Yorkshire Street I passed the the last two people I mentioned but hoping to give the first man some loose change I could not see him where he had been originally.  Whilst contemplating whether to visit the market I looked up Yorkshire Street to see the man I was looking for trudging down the road with his possessions.  I told him I had hoped to see him as I wanted to give him a couple of coins, which he fumbled, dropping one, before managing to find a pocket to put them in.  His dishevelled appearance made him look older than my 74 years but he could have been about 50.  His appearance was made worse by a raw wound to his forehead.  When asked how he got it he said he had been resting on a bench when a man came up to him and hit him without any provocation.  He said he had been moved on from where I had seen him previously by Enforcement Officers but philosophically he said I had not received much money because he felt Rochdale people were hard up themselves!!  He was on a waiting list for a shelter but in the meantime I told him about the Red Cross where he could get a hot drink and on that day a free haircut.

  OK. common story but having watched the last of a series on rough sleepless and homeless, this one in Glasgow,  I was like the undercover journalist, impressed by how pro-active the city was in dealing with the problem.  This in one of the poorest cities in Europe.  They were fast-tracking people into accommodation and although there were many people having to use shelters the number living rough was down to around 30.  The Enforcement Officers have a job to do but we need to be more humane in how we deal with this issue which, though I may be wrong, as big an issue here as in some other towns and cities.

  My question is are these rough sleepers being identified, supported and found a shelter quickly enough?  There will always be a minority who refuse help but many like the man I met are genuinely destitute and wanting help.

John Wilkins 

 ***************

Reply from Rochdale councillor X:

Good afternoon John,

As a society we should not turn a blind eye to what we are seeing on the streets in our towns and cities and clearly John, you are one of the many compassionate people who do not 'walk on the other side of the road’.

Since my election in May, the issue of Enforcement Officers moving people on in Rochdale, who they perceive to be begging, has been highlighted by elected members on at least two occasions, who took the same view as you, that these vulnerable people need help and support, in order to persuade them that there are alternatives available. I do know that the Enforcement Officers have been made aware about our concerns.

From September I’ve been working Monday mornings at the Lighthouse Project foodbank, doing the ‘meet and greet’.  I’ve met several rough sleepers, who have been helped with permanent housing or temporary accommodation in hostels.  The majority, as you would imagine, do accept the help, but I know of at least one, who is unwilling to engage.

I can reassure you that officers and elected members, take the issue of rough sleepers, very seriously and they are being pro-active in their efforts to help and support, those who are clearly in need.

A motion was passed in the Council recently, that called upon the Chief Executive to write to the Government, asking for powers to be extended to Andy Burnham, to enable him to raise a local tax from people who stay in hotels, which would then be used to fund more projects to help with rough sleeping.  Although it’s very unlikely the Government will agree to this,  I think it does send out a message that concerns are growing about the ongoing problem, which is being made even more acute by the government’s austerity programme.

Kind regards,

…................................    

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All right councillor, any spare change comrade?

 by a Rochdale Campaigner for the Homeless

PROVERBs 28:27:  'Who-so-ever gives to the poor will lack nothing, 

but those who close their eyes to poverty 

will be cursed';  

THIS proverb has I feel some particular relevance here to the historical comments made by the Rochdale Councillor Blundell in 2017 in Manchester Confidential and elsewhere online.  One wonders if he really believes what he has had to say in these publications or if he is merely playing to the gallery in the hope of deriving some perceived public advantage.

Is it all about political opportunism on his part?  Surely he must be aware that in reality local services are collapsing?  Surely he must be aware of the self evident human tragedies playing out daily on the stage of our town centre?

Our town centre regeneration is a calamity of epic proportions, creating not an Urban Utopia for the vast majority of our citizens despite the endless millions poured down what appears to be a bottomless pit but a confused of expensive high end bespoke tailors and obscure  independent shops few but our local councillor class can afford to shop in.  Excellently renovated but prohibitively priced hostelry's which the locals cannot afford and will not drink in.  And let us not forget a continuously newly re-launched 'market' in a former Market Town which  is now a public embarrassment across the entire North of England.

It's clear that Cllr. Blundell's position is embarrassingly - and glaringly - so far out of step with that of the Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham's recent rough sleeping initiatives that even John's found it politically expedient to 'photo bomb' a May Day march to desperately manufacture some much needed street cred with respect to homelessness .  Such political opportunism comes with the mentality of an ideological chameleon which may play well  with some folk but the rest of us really aren't that stupid.
 

Away from the cosy illusion of Rochdale Labour fraternalism and comradeship we see recent research by University College London (UCL), shows that homeless people are much more likely to die from certain conditions than even the poorest people who have a place to live.

The findings come as the final count from our Dying Homeless project shows an average of 11 homeless people a week have died in the UK in the last 18 months.  We have been collecting data dating back to October 2017 and telling the stories of those who have died on the streets or in temporary accommodation; our tally now stands at 796 people.  Of those people we know the age of, more than a quarter were under 40 when then they died.

Advocates of 'Public Space Protction Orders' such as Cllr. Blundell, regard them as a useful tool to address localised problems with anti-social behaviour and ensure the safe-guarding of the wider community and public spaces.  The rest of us know they are not working, even by our  councils back of the beer mat criteria they have failed miserably.  Since the  introduction of Rochdale Council's PSPO within the exclusion 'zone ' we have witnessed the closure of The Wellington Drake Street,      (incidentally they never did get their outside seating approved despite many promises from a certain Councillor) was nice while it lasted but few knew their  much heralded opening only a few months ago would result in such a speedy demise?
 
One conclusion that may be drawn is that Cllr. Blundell is attempting to demonise what he calls 'aggressive begging', and the council are attempting to criminalise it by the use of Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) as a scapegoating exercise to escape blame for their own shortcomings in the management of Rochdale town centre.

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