In town this morning, at the Local Excellence Market, there were two young ladies who have their own company, called Rainbow Lane. They sell a wide variety of crochet, and were also part of the much larger group that yarn bombed Abingdon earlier this year.
Added Ingredients have a fine display of il Panettone and other Italian Cake – enjoyed usually at Christmas and New Year.
Meanwhile down Bury Street, The Abingdon Flower Club have been in the Community Shop for the last week giving people of all ages the opportunity to make their own Floral Christmas Decorations.
In St Helens Church there was a Christmas Fair with stalls, a very exciting raffle, and Handbell ringing.
Out in the cold, somebody has taken up residence in the porch of the closed down Connexions, job advice service for young people. They are keeping the area tidy using a dustpan and broom.
This is dreadful ! I first saw this woman about 3 weeks ago and thought it some sort of Children in need stunt, but when she entered her third week there it became obvious it was not.
I have spoken to her, her name is Jackie Rowland, she says she originally came from Hong kong, she says she has no family or relatives to speak of and fell upon hard times a while back. She is an intelligent, well spoken, middle aged woman who clearly has some difficulties, she says she was “placed” in the Knowl care home a few yards away but didn’t like it and ended up being thrown out !
I asked her what her prospects were? she said she is on the Vales list as being homeless and is waiting to be selected for a flat, I asked her what she does for food? she said people are very kind, “they give me food and drink and a lady from Shippon is bringing me a cassarol ! I asked her how she she manages for money? she says she gets some benefit !!
tonight she will spend yet another freezing 10 hours on the pavement ! is this really happening in Abingdon? is the Vale council, its officers and councillors really aware of this womans plight when they drive past her everyday? How poor is our society when today the protaganists of this town were busy pedeling their wares on the Market Place, oblivious to this poor womans plight?
Please contact your councillor asap and tell them in the strongest possible manner to do something !!
Steve K
Steve,
Well done taking the trouble to find out what was happening.
I must admit I only noticed this today as I drove past and assumed the building was being emptied.
How about unlocking the building and letting her move in as a first step.
It will be interesting to see the response from the Council.
Hi GJ, it’s a bit of a dilema as to know what to do, clearly she has fallen through the net, but if I shout and hollar I’m worried I may make her position even worse ? I’m hoping there are enough well meaning folk who read this (and I know there are) who will take up this poor souls cause and lobby the Vales housing people, Jackie was most sincere and even apolagetic toward her case worker, Erica Young from the Vale, even so Ms Yound went home on Friday night no doubt to a nice warm, safe home knowing that Jackie was having to spend yet another night on concrete ! how can a person be so flipant, so matter of fact about her job while knowing she’s leaving Jackie like this??
Sorry to sound off against Ms Young, but !
I contacted today a homeless charity. There are still social services available to make sure that in the land of plenty, nobody should have to sleep in the cold. I did not realise she has been sleeping there for 3 weeks. I will make sure on Monday that she is being looked after.
Many people just don’t realise how much genuine deprivation and poverty there is in our seemingly affluent town. Lobbying about individual cases is one approach – another is for those of us who have either time or money to spare to give some of it to the various charities who are working day and night to help resolve or at least alleviate these problems.
If you want to press for “the authorities” to change the situation, you need to fight for whichever party you think will do that – but that sort of change will take time.
PS Steve – believe it or not the “protagonists of the town” you refer to do lots of things which don’t get trumpeted around the press and blogs – and having a jibe at them for continuing to deliver on something you yourself pressed hard for a few years ago I.e a Saturday Market seems a bit hard!
So far Hester I don’t think any charity has offered Jackie any help, but what makes me so angry about this is the fact staff in the housing department of the Vale must be driving past her everyday? and what for the PCSO’s? the town councillor who’s ward she is in?the councty councillor who’s freezing pavement she’s sleeping on?her GP?, her case worker?the staff at the Knowl who threw her out?and of course the hundreds, even thousands who drive,bus and yes cycle past her everyday?are they all blind or just plain selfish?
Life is so fickle and it is a stark reminder that at any time, any of our circumstances can change (as it has with Jaclie) Today Jackie, tomorrow your daughter,son, sister, father? I pray not !
Hester, there’s more to a community than a market place< I wonder how many of those stall holders selling food even considered walking a couple of hundred yards along Stert St to share it with her? even the day's left overs would, i'm sure have been appreciated.
No, I didn’t offer to take her home with me, Steve. Did you?
Funny you should say that John !
I am shocked to hear about this. I hadnt seen this lady. It is the Vale’s duty to give temporary accomadation to anyone actually homeless, and to be fair the Vale’s homelessness team are very good and very caring and do whatever is in their limited power to help, so there must be more to this case than meets the eye. For instance if her behaviour has caused her to be thrown out of accomodation, she will, in the eyes of the law (not of the Vale’s making but the Vale has to obey it) be deemd intentionally homeless.
Sadly, homelessness has risen since the latest welfare cuts have started to bite. This is putting a great strain on the availabilty of temporary accomadoation and I imagine this lady has been placed at the Knowl until something more suitabel can be found for her
The law, as ever, is heartless when it comes to providing adequately for those in need.
I will ring the homelessness team tomorrow and find out what can be done.
Meanwhile if you want to be cross with someone at the lack of housi9ng for those in need, ask why Cranbourne homes havent yet honoured tgheir agreement. They are contracted to build homeless accommodation – 14 flats I think at the last count – on the old nurseries land in Harcourt Way as part of their payback for developing the Old Gaol. This should have been completed by now and hasn’t even got as far as the planning stage.
apologies for all the spelling typos in the above posting
I don’t pretend to understand the ways of Planning Committees or Law, However, it seems to me that there have been too many instances of Building Companies/Developers making promises to make certain social provision as part of their deal for permission to build private housing. Then nothing happens!!.
What has become of also the potential develoment of a Riverside Entertainment Quarter as (I heard) promised by Cranbourne Homes as part of the Old Goal development permission? (Hitherto I had not heard of the Harcourt development but this is obviously part of the same contract?).
Should there not be some Penalty Clauses written into these undertakings, in case of this kind of provision not being honoured or being delayed?
The Harcourt way development is part of a section 106 agreement, whereby a developer has to provide 40% of affordable housing, of which 75% of that 40% must be social housing for rent, on all developments of 16 houses or more. The percentages vary from one authority to another depending on what is written in their local plan.
The coalition government has now made this harder to enforce as they have introduced a viability clause which says that if developers can demonstrate they will make less than 21% profit they don’t have to honour their section 106 agreement. I don’t know if this applies to agreements that were made before the latest legislation. But, as you can imagine, this makes it very hard to provide enough affordable housing for those on low incomes.
Hi Angela, et, I did offer accommodation, and to pay for a room etc, but was advised if I do this Jackie would no longer be classed as homeless and would therfore drop off the list !
You raise a very important and relevent point re Cranbourne and their obligations, least of all was to make public the access from East St Helens to the river via the Gaol which is locked and of course there is/was the obligation to open up the river for public access in the old gaol grounds, new restaurants, shops etc all of which was part of their planning/sale obligation.not least of which was redevelopment of the gaol itsef.which is in the same.sad,boarded up state it’s been in for a decade or more!
Hey Hester, I beleive you were privy to the Cranbourne bid, are they compliant or not?
Steve – re Old Gaol, what I saw was their original bid. as has been widely reported since then, there were extensive negotiations both at the contract stage and at the Planning Application stage so I don’t have inside knowledge of the final agreement. However the planing application and approval are in the public domain and the Friends of Abingdon have been keeping a watching brief on the issue of access to and through the site.
Last time we checked, we felt that they were just about keeping to their commitments in relation to the route from Bridge Street to East St Helen Street – although the entrance from the latter is not exactly clearly visible. We will continue to monitor and if necessary take it up with the Vale – but last time I suggested on here that people might help us with that I got a shirty response!
The issue of the access around the building and to the riverside is tied up with delays in completing the work on the OG building itself – since that was never due to be complete before 2914 it is difficult to make too much fuss at this stage.
The issue of the Harcourt Way social houding
Sorry – pressed submit by mistake… Social Housing at Harcourt Way – last thing I heard was a few years ago when objections were raised to the planning application to build on that site. That’s democracy for you – one lot want it, the other don’t! Seriously though I will leave it to someone else – maybe a councillor for that ward(?) – to update us all on that.
Harcourt Way is in my ward, and, yes, there were fears and therefore objections from residents, but I elicited promises and reassurance of proper and adequate supervision, and the design was altered so there would be more family units. The accommodation is so badly needed, but every time I ask about progress I get told it’s definitely coming soon.
Steve, that was good of you to offer help, but the advice is right, as long as someone had a roof over their head they can’t be classed as homeless under the act. They can, though, be assessed as having a priority need and be given points accordingly which will put them in the appropriate band on the waiting list. What a system!
Hester, I’m glad the public access to the riverside and from Twickenham House, is being monitored by the Friends. Its something the previous administration was very firm about in its negotiations with Cranbourne
God, this is depressing … this poor lady freezes while ham-fisted bureaucrates perfect the art of sharpening their pencils. Well done Steven, though I’d prefer this hadn’t had to be brought to our attention. Perhaps someone should ring The Daily Mail as I’m sure they could twist a headline out of this … ‘Abingdon, the town which doesn’t care’. Heaven forfend that I fall on bad times in this town… the cup of bureaucratic charity runneth not over.
Unfortunately this, with the Old Goal disaster, other projects, now joined by the Guildhall cinema project just go to prove that we have the most inept bunch of politicians on the planet … in the universe …? Any more offers?
Fun as it is to slag off our council and anyone working in the social services, we do only seem to be getting one side of the story..
Whilst no one should be homeless, there is also some personal responsibility to be taken that makes sure you dont get yourself ‘throw out’ of the accommodation offered and provided just yards away.. just because you dont like it.
While I am not suggesting for a moment that it is the case of this woman, a huge number of homeless people suffer from mental health problems, which is often the reasons they become homeless in the first place. Social services also include mental health support which has been drastically cut.
Well said, anon. There is more to this case than is apparent and there are plenty of people – including councillors and council staff – who care very much about this,
It is the Vale District and not the town council who provide housing. They are bound by Government rules, bureaucracy and cuts in funding.
The rise in homelessness is a national scandal, not specific to Abingdon. Cuts in housing benefits, job losses due to redundancies, pay which is below the living wage have left even those in homes unable to keep up with their rents or mortgages.
Blimey, what a leafy suberb Abingdon is! One homeless person and you’re all up in arms. Yes I feel sorry for the lady but people get a grip!! have you not been to Oxford recently? There are loads of homeless people there! Its a horrible fact of life, some people sleep rough!
It is a pity that there is so much ill informed comment regarding Jackie Rowland, the homeless woman currently sleeping rough outside Connexions. It is so easy to have a pop at the council when you don’t know the facts.
I cannot go into details of course becasue we respect Jackie’s privacy, but I can assure everyone that my housing staff are working tirelessly to try to resolve the situation. The comment made by Steve King about Erica Young from my housing team is not only incorrect but also very hurtful and if he has any respect for a hard working dedicated member of staff he will apologise.
Regarding the Old Gaol, the council continues to work with Cranbourne to bring the scheme to a successful conclusion and I expect to see work starting on the original buildings during 2014. As the council has always promised, when the development is complete we will publish financial details and the public can judge for themselves whether or not this was a good deal for local taxpayers.
‘Regarding the Old Gaol, the council continues to work with Cranbourne to bring the scheme to a successful conclusion and I expect to see work starting on the original buildings during 2014. As the council has always promised’ … but rarely delivered. Do Cranbourne require another reduction in payment?
Really David, start informing the public and then there’d be less ill informed comment about.
Nice phrasing, though.
Re the old Gaol, to confirm that scaffolding has today gone up on the old police station.
Well done to the council head for responding and for defending the team at the Vale. So easy to throw blame on an already over stretched local government department ,the reality is the complexity of cases like this go far deeper than ordinarily seems, if there was a quick and easy fix I’m confident that the authorities would have acted if they haven’t already.
What makes us all really uncomfortable is this homeless person has a name and a back story that many can relate to. In most cases the homeless are conveniently silent and anonymous
I hope it works out for Ms Rowland and she finds safety and warmth soon.
Re :post 17 : Access from East St Helen Street to Bridge Street via the Old Gaol site – just to re-assure Hester and her FoA friends I too am monitoring this very closely and am frequent contact with the Vale Planning team…Re Post 11: Harcourt Way development – one concern which had to be addressed was to ensure that the development would not add to the flooding risk further down the River Stert – as someone else has said – nothing is ever quite as simple as it first appears ……..
Re :post 17 : Access from East St Helen Street to Bridge Street via the Old Gaol site – The WI Friday walkers had to beat a retreat last week as the gate onto Bridge St was locked. – or is there an Alice in Wonderland way out that they did not find !
Well done Erica for the work you do in dealing with what must be a very challenging job.
Great to hear that the lady featured in this thread will be warm again this evening and hopefully has a more permanent solution on the way.
I’m afraid I’m embarrassed by some of the comments on this thread which fail to understand the complexities of dealing with this sort of case. Please keep up the good work that you and your colleagues do, and remember that most people understand and support the difficult work you do.
I am yet to locate the entrance to the Old Gaol from East St Helen st.
The gate in front of twickenham house is always locked by a very permanent looking security gate with buzzer entry.