Battling pensioners celebrate success that Sotheby Mews Day Centre will stay open
‘We were not going to go quietly’
Published: 11th March, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER
PENSIONERS were this week claiming final victory in their battle to save the Sotheby Mews Day Centre from closure.
Their fears that the centre for the elderly in Highbury would shut its doors on March 31 were dispelled yesterday (Thursday) when they heard from Islington Council that Sotheby Mews would remain open continuously.
Liz Clare, Sotheby’s most vociferous campaigner, told the Tribune: “I am absolutely overjoyed.”
Last month, the Labour-run council reversed its earlier decision to shut down Sotheby Mews as part of a £52million cuts package.
But the borough couldn’t guarantee that Sothebys wouldn’t shut temporarily at the end of this month and predicted that it might remain closed until May.
A core group of around 30 elderly people depend on the centre for hot meals and company, and it was feared that some might sink into isolation and depression without somewhere to go.
The council have agreed a plan to amalgamate Sotheby’s lunch club with the nearby Highbury Roundhouse lunch club, which will move out of its base in Ronalds Road.
A spokesman said a club of around 60 people at Sothebys would now be viable.
Sotheby Mews members launched a passionate campaign to save the centre when the council first announced a plan to axe £166,000 funding in early September.
Ms Clare publicly berated Labour Council leader Catherine West at a Christmas party for pensioners at the Assembly Hall in Upper Street, Islington.
She told the Tribune yesterday: “If we’d have just sat round and done nothing it would have been closed. But because we decided we weren’t going to go quietly and we were going to fight, this is the result – we won.”
Henry Bourner, chairman of the mews’ user group, said the club might be open for four days rather than five as at present but added: “We’ll accept a compromise – it’s a hell of a lot better than nothing.”
Other services at the centre, such as keep fit, arts and crafts, and line dancing, will be scaled back, it is feared, as the council will now only provide £55,000 worth of funds annually.