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By ROISIN GADELRAB
 

(Back row l-r) Ruth Shawcross, Warren Long, Mary Hernon, Nihad Metwalli, (front row) Robert Bailey and Mychaela Grant.
Centre wins reprieve but closure threat remains

THE Town Hall has had to shell out more than £40,000 to cover campaigners’ legal costs after its attempt to close a mental health day centre was blocked.
Users of Jamestown Centre in Adelaide Road, Chalk Farm, went to the High Court to force the council to shelve plans to shut the centre. They have won nearly £42,000 in legal costs.
But the reprieve may be short-lived as a Town Hall press official said this week that the council will again consider closure after a new consultation exercise is carried out.
Twenty-two centre users claimed the council had made an unlawful decision in closing the centre without completing an adequate consultation process. The council maintained the centre’s closure was an essential part of a shake-up in mental health care. At the High Court, Mr Justice Walker gave both sides eight days to come up with a compromise. An agreement was reached on Thursday, with only a day to spare.
The council has agreed to reinstate services cut at the centre as part of the winding-down process, including replacing meals-on-wheels with a two-course meal prepared by a cook; re-starting the Monday Ashanti meetings for black and Asian service users and arranging adequate heating.
Saimo Chahal, a partner at leading human rights legal firm Bindman and Partners who represented the centre users, said: “The Jamestown users have proved to be a united and formidable force. The council should think twice before riding roughshod over their rights again.”
The day centre is used by more than 100 people with severe mental health problems, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and psychosis. Ruth Shawcross, a regular visitor to the centre, said the victory had taken a lot of pressure off users, adding: “We were all becoming unwell, not knowing what’s happening to us. The health of everyone has improved since we won.”
One centre visitor, who did not wish to be named, said: “This just proves people with mental health problems have a voice and we’re not going to be walked over. If they do want to shut it down they will have another fight on their hands.”
Campaigner Nihad Metwalli believed the council’s total costs could be close to £100,000. He said: “It is scandalous. The council have wasted a lot of money defending this case when they must have known they didn’t have a strong chance. They would have done better to spend this money on mental health services.”
A council press official said: “There were very extensive discussions with people who use day centres and people who prefer to use the less institutional services, and this included clear discussion about closing one centre.
“However, we accept that the process did not meet the legal criteria for consultation and we now intend to put that right.”
Adding that the centre would remain open throughout an ensuing formal consultation process, he said: “Some services which had been diverted to Crossfield Day Centre will now be reinstated at Jamestown.
“The council proposed closing Jamestown because it wants to focus on much-needed vocational support services and new one-to-one support services. Jamestown, of the five council-funded centres, faces the greatest difficulty in meeting current health and safety and access standards.”
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