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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