On Tuesday 19th October 30 or more campaigners from the the S.A.D. Ealing Campaign to save Ealing Daycare converged on the steps of Ealing Town Hall to demonstrate against the closure of The Albert Dane Day Centre for disabled adults and The Links Project for adults with significant mental health issues.
In appalling weather service users in their wheelchairs; one who almost sustained an injury whilst getting himself of a bus when the ramp didn't work correctly, demonstrated loudly and proudly to save the services that 'gave them their lives back'.
This was in stark contrast to the ruling Labour group of councillors who refused to come out of their warm offices above to speak to their constituents despite being invited to do so by speakers on the megaphone.
Together with staff from several services across the borough of Ealing, members of several trade unions and political groupings and campaigners they used their loud hailer to show that they were not giving in to the calllous closure proposals by Ealing Council.
There were speeches from services users and staff explaining the impact of the closure and why they were lobbying. This had a big impact on the general public and indeed the Ealing staff trooping out of the adjacent Perceval House council offices; many of whom came up to our stall to discuss the issues and then sign the ever growing petition to stop the closure of the services. Politicians from the Conservatives (who's Cllr Stafford had brought up the evenings council debating motion against the closure program) and Liberal Democrats who both oppose the closure proposals came to speak to the campaigners.
The lobby then went into the public gallery to watch the debate on the opposing motion.
Cllr Stafford (Con, Cleveland Ward, Shadow Cabinet - Adult Services and Health), in raising the motion to stop the closure; spoke of the importance and need for such a centre to provide for such vulnerable people and mentioned the S.A.D. Ealing campaign and it's success so far, the coverage in the local Southall Gazette and the vast amount of correspondence and emails that has been recieved on the issue by council officials and fellow Councillors. Cllr Reen (Con, Northfield, Shadow Cabinet - Regeneration), a former Conservative Adult Social Services Portfolio holder in the previous administration spoke movingly of the way the service users have bonded into their own 'community' and help and aid each other in their daily lives and how cruel it would be to take that away from them and the sterling work the staff team have done at Albert Dane to support their users. Cllr Ranjit Dheer (Lab, Dormers Wells, Portfolio holder - Safer Communities and Deputy Leader) waffled and prevaricated and basically said very little but wasted time in the debate. Cllr Jasbir Anand (Lab, Southall Green, Portfolio Holder - Health and Adult Services) then rose to speak, amid loud heckling from the service users present she arrogantly stated that the centre was unfit for purpose and that 'those people' would be better off without it, surprising considering two things. Firstly 'those people' (the service users presumably!), half of them would lose their service entirely if the centre closes; under the rules of the new fangled 'personlisation' agenda being touted by Ealing 50% of the users would end up with nothing as they would not qualify for a 'personal budget' with which to 'buy' services such as a carer or someone to transport them to activities. The remaining users would be vastly worse off as the amount of money they would have would be less and private services are much more expensive.
Cllr Anand is rather a hypocrite we think, considering her own mother uses a day centre.
Amid further heckling from services users and campaigners and indeed members of the public in the gallery overlooking the debating chamber; in the end the Labour group unsurprisingly voted en bloc to defeat the motion.
However the lobby did have an immediate impact. The final decision on the closure was due to be made at a meeting of the Ealing Cabinet on November 9th. Undoubtedly under the pressure of the campaign Ealing Council have decided to postpone the final decision to December 21st in order to do 'further study' into the closure.
This has now bought the campaign an extra month to organise in the borough to bring more pressure to bear on the Cabinet to stop the cuts and needless closures that would save less than the salary of the chief executive.
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STOP PRESS! The meeting to decide the final fate of the Albert Dane Centre has been yet again moved (to an as yet unknown date). More to come when we know the new date, so another lobby can be set up.......
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AGAINST CUTS SATURDAY 23rd OCTOBER
The coalition government of millionaires is ready to axe the jobs and services of working people. Nothing is safe, unless we stand up and fight back.
The London RMT, FBU, PCS, NUT, UCU and National Shop Stewards Network have called a London demonstration to march from RMT HQ to the SERTUC (South East Region TUC) Anti-Cuts Rally in Congress House.
Just days beforehand, the Con-Dem Government will announce its Comprehensive Spending Review. Bankers and their greedy system caused this crisis. Now they want working people to pay their debt, by cutting our jobs and public services, slashing our welfare benefits and pensions, and privatising our NHS, schools and Royal Mail.
This march, as part of the wider TUC week of action, gives trade unionists and local communities a chance to ‘take to the streets’ and show that we aren’t going to sit back and accept vicious cuts to jobs and services.
The march will assemble outside Unity House, 39 Chalton St, NW1 at 11am and march to Bedford Square WC1, just around the corner from Congress House. There will be speakers, including Bob Crow (RMT) and Matt Wrack (FBU), at an outdoor rally in Bedford Square
.
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LINKS
You can email your protests directly to Cllr Jasbir Anand
You can also email Stephen Day who is the director of Adult
on 020 8825 9315
Martin Smith is the Chief Executive of Ealing Council, he has
two email's with which you can contact him on
Angie Bray is the Conservative MP for Ealing Central & Acton angie.bray.mp@parliament.uk
Virendra Sharma is the Labour MP for Ealing Southall Steve Pound is the genial MP for the neighbouring
constituency of Ealing North
The Ealing Learning Disability Partnership Board
is a group charged with defending the rights of service users in the
borough and ensuring they get good services. You can fill out a contact form with your concerns about proposed closures at:
thanks!
With thanks to Rosangela Borgese for the beautiful photos & Neil Cafferky.
