Bournemouth Borough Council is a Conservative-run local authority. According to the town’s local newspaper, it has an ‘epidemic’ homelessness problem, with rates rising faster than the national average.
As a ‘solution’ to its problem, the council has been making an addition to its town-centre benches:
Bournemouth council has a web page for people sleeping rough or who feel at risk of homelessness. But ‘solving’ the problem by adding ugly metalwork to make it hard for rough sleepers to use benches as beds makes it look like the council’s priority is to keep the grim spectacle away from the tender eyes of the town’s shoppers, rather than finding desperate people somewhere to live.
Neighbouring towns have been complaining for some time that Bournemouth council has been ‘forcing’ rough sleepers out of its town centre into theirs.
A Labour housing activist commented,
I can’t believe the time & effort put into to such awful responses to the issue of homelessness. Where is the humanity?
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This is Gloucester City Council’s answer to solving the problem:
https://www.change.org/p/councillor-paul-james-gloucester-city-council-do-not-introduce-public-space-protection-orders
I hope some of Bournemouth’s activists get out there with hacksaws.
what a bunch of scum !
Leaving aside the despicable nature of the Council’s actions for now – those excrescences are worse than useless in terms of the Council’s ambition – not least because a good kick from the side would break the bench slats at the attachment points.
The same weakness will also cause them to loosen in normal use just from people leaning against or bumping into them.
They’ll need constant inspection and repairs to avoid claims for injuries caused by splintering of the slats at the carbuncle-mounting points.
At least Bournemouth will get new benches in a year or two.
Well they are Tory are they not! But then again I live ( unfortunately ) in a Labour area and they are just as bad if not worse.
All these council bosses are over paid – basically jobs for life and perks as they want ,with sole purpose to screw rate payers, let alone non rate payers due to circumstances. They are all human except perhaps Govt and Local Govt seniors.
Hey Skwawkbox, Namaste 🙂
Words now appear insufficient to describe the inhumane wickedness of depraved minds targeting the most vulnerable in society: mere words alone are obviously meaningless to amoebic mentalities. Public sentiment is ignored, public opinion dismissed, and with central government abdicating all sense of responsibility it does indeed appear that there are few options left for the most vulnerable in society outside of charity and public donation, which is not sustainable given the growing numbers of Homeless in the UK.
Prosecution of Politicians and Councillors who put their names to policies that deal-out death with vicious intent will only come about when human rights lawyers with balls big enough to confront this evil stand up to be counted alongside the common man. Why for example can’t the charities who business it is alleviating suffering for those most vulnerable come together with intention of taking Housing Ministers and other associated parties to court. One victory is all that is needed to set in motion a wave of change. If such an initiative were brought to my attention I’d quite happily donate what I was able to afford if only to see the dogs of government put down like the rapid animals they are. I’m certain crowd funding could pay for such a campaign and if not crowd funding then why not seek private financing from abroad?.
Failing that and having pursued any other options that are available, including the Opposition Party actually making a hell of a lot of noise publically and in the House and making a determined effort on behalf of The People to restore semblance of humanity back to the UK then surely there is only one course of action left, and that Social Revolution. Given the rising tension in the UK at the growing divide between those that have and those that don’t just one small spark would be enough to inflame the embers in the hearth of The People who have had enough of this brutal fascist regime and wish to see it gone: dead and buried next to the thousands who have already died as a direct result of policy.
Power to The People!!
Love and Peace. Namaste 🙂
DN
~ Blind Beggar ~ By ~ The Prophet ~
~
I met a blind beggar with an empty piss-pot,
‘Got any spare change mister ‘cos I ain’t got a lot.”
“Just these filthy ragged clothes and my shameful memories,”
“Days long past when I couldn’t grasp the meaning of immorality.”
“Or that I was the primary cause of the homeless tragedy.”
~
“I recognise you” I said, “aren’t you Theresa May?”
“I used to be,” said she and looked the other way.
“Then came the revolution and everything changed.”
“I’d tell ya my sad tale if only you’d stay.”
“Now ya know who I am, you’re gonna walk away.”
~
“Please,” she begged, “I’m blind: now I see the evil of my policies.”
“The needless suffering and the depravity,”
“The misery the poverty the destitution and anxiety.”
“The energetic brutality with which I raped the country,”
“So that I and the chosen few could satisfy our gluttony.”
~
“Woe woe and thrice woe” I said, “how the mighty have fallen.”
“Out of favour out of grace tumbled to the very bottom.”
“Yet sadly for you your legacy isn’t quite forgotten.”
“So I’d love to put money in your stinking piss-pot,”
“But ‘cos of you I’m homeless too and I ain’t got a lot.”
~*~
Namaste 🙂
DN
This is the Tory answer to homelessness.
Move on, we don’t want you in our area!
The callous and uncaring way that Tory thinkers are with their prolific fascist thoughts for anybody who doesn’t fit their model ideal of living or breathing their air, is, out of sight, out of mind, their your problem now!
Last summer I predicted the toerags’d be out by february. Looks mightily unlikely now, but the way they’re carrying on the’ll definitely have their ‘Marie Antoinette’ moment in the near future (12months if they cling on that long)
I’m just surprised that there hasn’t been mass ‘civil unrest’ already.
The cost of replacing the Trident nuclear status symbol is more than enough to cover the cost of the housing crisis.
Jeremy Corbyn now needs to confront Labour’s nuclear mafia so that the Labour Party can argue clearly for a different set of spending priorities.
I would urge anybody who has a Labour MP to write to him/her to help get this changed.
Tony’s raised an issue I also feel strongly about. Sorry for the drift, please delete if it’s inappropriate.
As a nation that’s always been warlike-as-fuck we’re well placed to lead by example in renouncing our Imperial past, all foreign adventures, all foreign possessions, territories and ‘interests’ – and lobbying for the mutual dismantling of nuclear weapons.
While lobbying the existing nuclear force could be maintained for as long as it takes to convince all nations to dismantle their own nuclear weapons.
An old nuke may not be as powerful or as certain of delivery as a new one – but is still enough to deter.
Our defence could be very effectively secured by a low-cost citizen army, possibly similar to Israel’s. Our forces should only operate abroad under UN command to maintain our position of non-aggression.
We should be a peaceful but well-defended nation with a well-armed and trained citizen army with universal short-term conscription.
Armies fight hard in defence of home and family.
Just goes to show how ‘innovative’ Tories are when it comes to kicking vulnerable people in the teeth!