Plan to end rough sleeping and soup run around Westminster Cathedral - But, ban is 'unenforceable’ says church leader Alison Tomlin
Published: 04 March 2011
by JOSH LOEB
A CONTROVERSIAL plan by Westminster Council to ban soup runs and rough sleeping in some parts of the city is “unenforceable”, a senior church leader has claimed.
City Hall wants to pass a by-law prohibiting the volunteer groups that regularly dish out food around Westminster Cathedral from continuing to do so. Under the proposals, rough sleeping could also be banned.
Councillor Daniel Astaire – cabinet member for society, families and adult services – called soup runs “undignified” and said they served to keep people on the streets longer, thereby damaging their health.
Charities including St Mungo’s have welcomed the idea – but others have branded it “appalling” and “absurd”.
The Methodist Central Hall near Parliament Square has in the past organised soup runs in the area.
The Rev Alison Tomlin, the president of the Methodist Conference, the church’s governing body, told the West End Extra: “I’m not sure this would be enforceable anyway since if they fined the most vulnerable they wouldn’t be able to pay and if they fined charities or churches they would refuse to pay. I don’t think they would have the funds to send us all to prison. If the council were prepared to up its expenditure on providing good hostel accommodation to the homeless that would be one thing, but I’m guessing they’ve cut their expenditure on this, which is not surprising given the economy.”
Lidija Mavra – a volunteer with the group Sock Mob, which works with homeless people in Covent Garden – said: “This is an appalling idea which would effectively criminalise compassion.”
Westminster Labour group leader councillor Paul Dimoldenberg also criticised the proposals, branding them “cold-hearted”.
The by-law could come into force as early as October and one of the busiest providers of accommodation to homeless people in the area – the Castle Lane Homeless Hostel – is set to close in July.
Councillors have promised all those living there will be rehoused.
Last year, the Salvation Army-run Rochester Row Day Centre in Victoria – which organised food handouts for rough sleepers – closed to the dismay of experts including Richard Burdett, who edits The Pavement, a Bloomsbury-based magazine for the homeless.
At the time he warned the council “weren’t singing from the same hymn sheet” as charities combating homelessness.
Cllr Astaire said: “Soup runs have no place in the 21st century and it is wrong and undignified that people are being fed on the streets. Handing out free food only serves to keep people on the streets for longer, damaging their health. Efforts by local organisations responding to the needs of the most vulnerable within their own community are to be applauded. However, soup runs on the streets in Westminster actually encourages people to sleep rough in Central London, with all the dangers that entails. Our priority must be to get people off the streets altogether. There is no need for anyone to sleep rough in Westminster as we have a range of services that can help them off the streets to make the first steps towards getting their lives back on track.”