'Homeless will suffer' from pothole priorities
A senior councillor say the city council is getting its priorities wrong by putting pothole repairs over providing hostels for the homeless.
Former city council leader Ross Willmott says he is concerned about a planned £2.2 million cut to the authority's £6.6 million homelessness strategy by 2014-15.
The Labour politician said £1 million should be put back into the city's homelessness budget to avert the scheduled closure of hostels to save cash.
Council bosses said they wanted to restructure the service to focus on preventing homelessness in the first place rather than running an expensive "revolving door" hostel system where residents returned time and time again.
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Coun Willmott said: "I want to be clear, I think our proposed housing strategy is a good one but I am not certain it can be achieved under the weight of cuts we are being forced into. We do not have a choice about saving money, but we do have some freedom on how we do it.
"In my opinion, as a Labour-run council, our priority should be about helping the most vulnerable people, like the homeless.
"I know it is important we keep roads in good condition but I do think we are getting our priorities wrong.
"We are fixed on spending money on filling in potholes but I think we should be using money to provide food and shelter for people who have none. That, for me, is more important."
Coun Willmott is a member of the authority's adult social care and housing scrutiny commission, which has agreed a motion which proposes £1 million be restored to the budget. It will be considered by the council's executive, which is made up of city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and his team of assistants.
Assistant mayor in charge of homelessness strategy Andy Connelly said: "Scrutiny is entitled to make any recommendations it wants, which will be considered.
"It will be the case that the strategy will drive the budget and not the other way round.
"There will be concerns about the choices we make because this is a very important service and we have been put in a position where we do face very tough decisions.
"What we know is the strategy we have at the moment is not working and people are returning to hostels again and again. We need to help them get out of the cycle."
Coun Connelly said no decisions would be taken before a consultation ends on February 18.
A city council spokesman said: "The proposals aim to support people into independent living.
"We want to focus resources away from addressing homelessness after it happens to preventing it from happening at all. Therefore, we propose to build on preventative services. We also aim to develop the supply of private rented accommodation so that some people will not have to go into a hostel at all."
11 Comments
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by Rachel12345
Tuesday, January 29 2013, 6:24PM
“Prevention is good, when the services are there (which require funding), but where people become homeless and require accommodation and support it is vital homeless services are protected. Sign this e-petition to protect Leicester City Services. Feel free to share the link. http://tinyurl.com/awd5unq”
by anobserver
Thursday, January 24 2013, 8:00AM
“.
Sneaky pete is for sneaky pete.Simples.Backed by jobsworths and hangers on he does as he wants.Close hostels?Easy.Cut services?Easy.Sack staff?Easy.Pay freezes?Easy.Gypsy sites?Easy.Scout hut?mmm.Ego park?easy.
As long as his hangers on are spoon fed payrises and new mayoral positions,at our cost,then he rules the roost.
The "proposal" to find private sector homes is another joke.There are hundreds of homes in Leicester rented out to homeless[aka asylum seekers}at our cost.Where do we find more.
Anyway..... can someone point out where the average of 50 a day repairs[pot hole palmers words] have taken place in the past 20 months ?Equates to[ approx] 20.000.”
by maxmax16
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 8:45PM
“petes priorities.close hostals for city homeless and then open traveller sites for non city folk.pete rules ok”
by DBLeicester
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 5:47PM
“''We want to focus resources away from addressing homelessness after it happens to preventing it from happening at all'' - And how is this proposed when there is a family breakdown, a relationship breakdown, an illegal eviction or some poor soul loses his job and therefore can no longer afford his home? Complete and utter tosh. Who ever believes this is living on cloud cuckoo. Prevention is better than cure, but when prevention is impossible, cure is the only answer.”
by IvanTheGreat
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 4:33PM
“I think this city has more pot holes than it does homeless people.”
by 4_Stroke
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 3:33PM
“The city council gets central government funding every year for road maintenance. The only problem is that because it's not ring fenced so it gets squandered on other projects. At some point in time you have to pay catch-up when the roads get too bad. And that is just about now.”
by 4_Stroke
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 3:32PM
“The city council gets central government funding every year for road maintenance. The only problem is that because it's not ring fenced so it gets squandered on other projects. At some point in time you have to pay catch-up when the roads get too bad. And that is just about now.”
by f007e
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 1:18PM
“*****32 - the bit you put in capital letters? To emphasise it? It's wrong. It hasn't been a Road Tax since the 1930's. It's a Vehicle Excise Duty and it isn't dedicated to maintaining the roads.”
by taffy32
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 12:20PM
“Hold on , the homeless should have no bearing on road maintainance , that is why we pay ROAD TAX to pay for roads without it coming out of other purses.”
by anobserver
Wednesday, January 23 2013, 11:21AM
“I remember as a child to keep children occupied on journeys.They was an easy game called "I spy,with my little eye,something begining with {whatever}b/d/z/{whatever} and people had to guess what you could see.Was a pass time .
Maybe we could have 1 for Leicester. "I spy with my little eye,something begining with P".
Pot hole repaired.Could keep you occupied all day .”