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Public must have say on care homes
• THE residents of Camden should be grateful to the CNJ for exposing the attempts by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition to introduce by stealth policies and practices which will have an extreme effect on the welfare of the old and most vulnerable members of the borough (The winter sale – your care home, Feb 1).
A prime example is that they are trying to increase considerably the charges for home care and community meals with little publicity and less consultation. You report Councillor Martin Davies’s comments on meals increases as: “The increase in charge that we are talking about is 50p.”
No, councillor Davies, the increase for a married couple over a year is £250. This amount may not be much to the likes of Lib Dem and Tory councillors but to those on a fixed pension it is considerable.
I suggest your readers ask councillors whether they intend to vote in support of this 21 percentage increase in an attempt to get a percentage more in line with inflation.
Mick Farrant
Oak Village, NW5
• MANY of the tenants in our sheltered housing block are anxious about our future in the light of your disclosure of the secret plans to sell off Camden’s old people’s homes.
A notice appeared on the board in our foyer stating the following: “I am writing to let you know that Savills, a firm of Surveyors, has been commissioned by Camden Council to carry out a stock condition survey.”
This block has recently been decorated and re-carpeted and generally smartened up which makes us suspicious.
Could it be that the fate of sheltered housing units is going the same way as the old people’s homes?
After all, their are some very prime properties among the sheltered housing units in the Hampstead area – Henderson Court and Monro House in Fitzjohn’s Avenue just to mention two.
I would welcome any comments.
Ruth Wreford
Ashdown Crescent Sheltered Housing, NW5
• LAST week’s CNJ exclusive about the Tory-Lib Dem proposals for older people’s residential care in Camden, illustrates a wider point about decision-making.
First, Kentish Town Baths and now this, underline how public decision-making has been undermined under the new administration.
Both are major decisions, involving a total of over £50 million of public money, far in excess of the council’s reserves, yet no report has come to either the executive or scrutiny prior to the consultations beginning. This is not by accident, but by design.
Public must have say on care homes. By not looking at how we can manage the risks involved in large projects, costly overspends may occur – threatening the council’s ability to invest in future projects. Worse still overspends may force the council to sell off yet more assets.
Almost a month ago I wrote to the chief executive and the head of law about these issues in relation to Kentish Town Baths – I have yet to receive a response. Surely, if the decision-making process was robust I would have been able to receive an assurance immediately.
So much for the Lib Dems’ much-vaunted election promise of a new openness at the Town Hall. In reality we seem to have got quite the reverse.
Cllr Anna Stewart
Leader of the Labour Group
Camden Council
• THE first and very necessary step to define the planning for care homes is to have a very thorough, sensitive and methodical consultation into what residents both need and want. This is about to begin.
I appreciate that the CNJ provides an excellent way to alert residents to the consultation, but the reality is that for the next few months it is just a question of allowing the process to function.
We all look forward to the results.
Cllr Roger Freeman (Con)
Swiss Cottage
Town Hall, WC1
• I WAS shocked to read that St Margaret’s Nursing Home is to be sold off. I doubt that there is a better-run nursing home in the country.
The management and staff there are really dedicated. West Heath road is a lovely area so it’s a prime development site worth millions of pounds – typical of the Tory-Lib Dem council to want to sell it off. What do they care about the weakest and most vulnerable in our society?
My friend who is resident there, and who I visit regularly, has dementia as do others, they won’t know what’s happening. I doubt if some of them would even survive the move. Kentish Town Law Centre, Citizens Advice Bureau, Meals on Wheels – what’s next?
Personally I’m prepared to pay more council tax to look after the most needy. After all, it could be our turn next. The old maxim still stands: “From each according to their means, to each according to their needs.”
John Butler
Kingswear Road, NW5
• AS a former chairman of Social Services I was horrified to read of the latest Tory-LibDem Alliance asset stripping plans for the borough.
These elderly persons’ homes have been built up over many years by Camden to care for our elderly, and should not be used to raise quick cash.
What is even more astounding is that this secretive decision that Branch Hill, St Margaret’s, Ingestre Road, and even the incomparable Charlie Ratchford Centre, are all to be shut down has been taken without prior scrutiny by any council committee. So much for the democratic process!
CLLR Julian Fulbrook
(Lab)
Town Hall, WC1
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