Last night I had the opportunity to speak at the Council meeting and raise the important issue of supporting the voluntary sector and other support agencies, departments and charities that are so precious to the most vulnerable and poorest residents in the Borough.
Cllr Stranack also joined me in the debate and highlighted the many organisation here in the borough who are the life-line to residents and highlighted the devastating impact from these severe Council cuts. Sadly, as a result of Corporate Blindness, as a result of complete incompetence, as a result of not listening and running up a debt of over £1.5 billion these residents are under attack.
Not satisfied with bankrupting the council and making poor decisions buying hotels and shopping centres, the council is in a deep dark black hole with no way out. In wielding its axe it proposes a 20% cut in care packages, and has already disbanding services for disabled employment support team. It appears that the Welfare Rights Team is now on their hit list. I was shocked when I received an email from the department which stated: “this will have a major negative impact on the most vulnerable residents in terms of poverty, ill health and homelessness. Shocking too that there appears to have been no formal consultation.
Many councillors in this chamber refer residents to this service and I would have hoped that there was a slim chance that councillors would support me tonight in the debate to protect the hundreds of residents who are going to suffer under these proposals.
It is estimated that the Welfare Rights team save £12 million pounds worth of losses to residents and over £2 million pounds in revenue to the council. A drop in the ocean considering the amount of money they are going to need to balance the budget and of course again another poor decision which doesn’t make good financial business sense. And I believe no formal consultation. Well that’s a big thank you to all of those who have worked so hard for the past 25 years and managed to navigate a pandemic.
The Council cuts to these services and the voluntary sector who are expected to pick up the pieces I was informed are to rely on the lottery or the very voluntary groups to which budgets are being cut. This action will leave many destitute, and this is all because the Administration didn’t listen and didn’t act when they should have. It will also leave everyone in a far worse financial position. Is this another case of Corporate Blindness I see before us? – well probably – no lessons learnt there then.
In all of this there is a choice. Of course the books must be balanced that is the law but where the axe falls is the choice of this administration. They could easily look at savings by recovering the 200 million pounds worth of loans to Brick by Brick or even sell the company, why not sell The Colonnades or the loss making hotel. I don’t believe that the residents who have nowhere to go, and it would appear that certainly not this administration to stand up for them, should suffer the most. Nobody is measuring the cumulative impact of these decisions. Why should I be surprised?
I asked councillors to support me in the motion and support these residents, to do something good but sadly it was only Conservative Councillors that stood up in support.
Anyway, this morning I received a very nice email from a disabled resident who watched the council meeting last night thanking me for all my efforts and thanking me on behalf of all the residents here in Croydon who are disabled and vulnerable.
That made my efforts all the more worthwhile.
