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It would be a crime to close law centre
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I READ your article last week saying 40 percent of the budget of the Camden Law Centre will be cut. I am very surprised to hear this. I wholeheartedly disagree with this budget cut and do not accept or understand the reasons behind it.
I have used the service many times and have found it to be extremely valuable, regardless of the long waiting time.
In every aspect of my personal life I have sought some advice from the law centre more than any other place because of the convenience, the flexibility in the drop in sessions, and the direct advice available from solicitors and advice workers.
I have grown up in Camden and almost lived half my life in Camden. They have always provided me with confidentiality.
I have nothing but praise for the Law centre and the devoted people who work in the centre.
I think as it is a new council they are just making a drastic change for the sake of a new change. In my experience of this kind of change, usually in a few years time it is reversed again when something drastic happens and they realise it was a mistake.
Unfortunately, this is the new thinking of the government too. They do not think first of the effect it will have on the majority of the poor and the vulnerable when making changes in the public and welfare system.
I also think that there will be a considerable strain to other community and advice services.
Already a lot of vulnerable people who cannot speak for themselves have experienced such difficulties in their day to day lives due to the loss of numerous services and budget cuts over the years in other boroughs.
We already pay a lot of taxes in Camden. Over the years I have seen a lot of new businesses set up and development happening in Camden. So, why is it that the residents and the public who live in Camden have to do without these public services?
Where does the public then go to for the lost services such as the law centre, especially with the growing number of problems in this modern day and age?
S BEGUM
Eversholt Street, NW1
• RE Proposed cuts to funding of legal centre, advice centres, and Citizens Advice Bureau. I do not remember any cuts to funding for law centres, advice centres or Citizens Advice Bureaus in the election manifestoes being mentioned at the time of this years’ local elections.
I would like to remind the executive that you serve the people of Camden. It is absolutely crucial that the less financially well off people of this borough have access to these valuable resources. Any cuts to the budget of the centres will have a detrimental effect on all of our community.
All this will achieve is unemployment of staff, downtrodden local residents, loss of open spaces and misery to the community. Only a bunch of utter and complete imbeciles would consider such cuts to our communities.
I ask you to remember that you will be up against highly educated people, with much legal talent. It will cost you more than the proposed 45 per cent cut in financial terms to fight this in court. I urge and implore you to reconsider this folly. Do not go down the same road as the arrogant Labour council before you. We expect better from you. We look to you for hope, please don’t let us down.
LEIGH AUSTIN
St Christopher’s house, NW1
• I WAS very dismayed to hear that Camden Community Law Centre has been threatened by cuts and possible closure. Camden Community Law Centre helped me a lot this year. I was very fortunate to be able to receive this free help.
As a respected newspaper in the borough, please do what you can to make sure that the Law Centre can continue to help people in Camden with their legal problems in the future.
VALERY BORI
Bartholomew Road, NW5
• I AM a Camden resident and have lived and worked here all my life. Over the last five years I have had to use the advice services several times.
The law centre itself has been very useful in keeping me and my family safe and grounded. The massive cut of 42 per cent will be to the detriment of the whole community.
We are getting a 100 per cent of assistance from these services, but already we need a 150 per cent to be able to help all those in need. With cuts of 42 per cent the raise in debt, homelessness and domestic violence will continue and more residents will suffer. Advice services are a lifeline to people like me, please do not cut them.
SANDRA JIJA
Arlington Road, NW1
• YOUR readership may be interested in this quote from the genius that is Councillor Theo Blackwell in last week’s letters page.
“Labour would not have cut funding for the CAB and Law Centre as they have a key role to play in tackling poverty.
“A 40 per cent reduction for advice services is unwarranted and I’m sure goes against the core values of the vast majority of people.”
They would be even more interested to hear that the previous Labour regime at the Town Hall slashed the CAB offices in Camden from seven to just three. Thus, Labour did cut funding for CAB in Camden and by over 50 per cent.
Let’s never forget that in May this year the people of Camden fundamentally rejected the Labour Party in Camden, and let us also not forget that the leadership of the Labour Party in Camden has not changed from those we rejected for their shoddy performance only seven months ago.
Labour mouthpiece Cllr Blackwell and his boss, Labour leader Cllr Anna Stewart were active members of the last failed administration and remain leading the Labour rump today. On December 7 Kentish Town residents again have the opportunity to tell Labour a simple message: “You’re out, and you’re staying out”.
CLLR ARTHUR GRAVES
(Lib Dems)
Belsize Ward
• WE are writing to express our grave concern about Camden Council’s proposed cuts to the grant to local advice agencies including the Citizens Advice Bureaux and Camden Community Law Centre.
As local solicitors, we are well aware of the value of the services provided by these agencies to some of the most vulnerable people in the community.
Especially important is the assistance they provide in sorting out benefits claims and negotiating with creditors and landlords to prevent eviction.
Without this essential service, many more families would lose their homes and in being forced to move also lose employment, school places, local support services and social networks.
We suggest that the cost to the local authority of having to deal with increased numbers of homeless people and the consequences for children in terms of disruption to education will be disproportionate to the sum it proposes to save by means of the proposed costs.
We strongly urge Camden Council to reconsider its support to the vital work carried out by the advice agencies in the borough.
RACHEL DONNISON
SUNIL SAGGAR
Johns and Saggar Solicitors
Kentish Town Road, NW5
• LEGAL aid has been a central part of the modern welfare state introduced by the 1945 Labour Government.
Without access to advice and legal representation, the comprehensive package of social rights to housing, health, education, social security benefits and fair employment practices would mean little.
In the post 9/11 agenda, we should perhaps add the right not to be arbitrarily arrested or unlawfully detained.
Rights, without the means to enforce them, are mere rhetoric.
The past 30 years have seen major demographic changes in Camden.
The combination of rising property prices, coupled with a decline in social housing, has seen Camden become the extreme of the rich and the poor whilst middle Londoners have been driven out.
The law centres and advice agencies have had a distinguished record of promoting test cases to advance the rights of the less powerful members of the community and to redress that imbalance.
In May, the electorate voted for change after 35 years of Labour rule in Camden.
Few voted for a 42 per cent reduction in the funding for legal advice which is now being proposed by the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition.
We should be in no doubt of the Coalition’s plans for the future.
Today the Coalition will cut the funding for the agencies that articulate for the poor and disadvantaged.
They also seek to silence the limited services that will remain through their salutary warning of the consequences to those that dare to bite the hand that feeds them.
Tomorrow, the Coalition will cut back the services upon which the poor, the old, the infirm, the unemployed and the disadvantaged rely.
These changes must be opposed. Otherwise, the Coalition will destroy the social fabric which has made Camden such a varied and thriving community in which to live.
ROBERT LATHAM
Mornington Terrace, NW1
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