Threatened day centre just like a family for many of us

Published: 3 September, 2010

• AS a member, I am very concerned about the threatened closure of Sotheby Mews Day Centre if Islington Council withdraws its funding.

This would have a profound effect on many of the members who rely upon it for giving meaning and quality to their lives.

For many it takes the place of a family, providing them with friends, social interaction, interests and activities helping to keep them happy, fit and active.

Staff offer assistance if any member has problems dealing with the complexities of present-day living and for the elderly there are many.

Computers are on hand for those wishing to use them, with help from the staff if necessary, not forgetting a hot meal at lunchtime for those requiring it.

We are told by politicians regarding the present economic difficulties that we are all in it together, but I would point out that younger people perhaps can look forward to better times in the future.

For the elderly their time is now.

The present-day crisis is caused in the main by greed on the part of banks and the ineptitude and lack of foresight by politicians, but it seems that the elderly and less well off will be the ones most suffering.

To ruin the lives of many elderly people who use and need Sotheby Mews Centre by closing it, condemning them to a lonely, worried and pointless existence, would be a very cruel decision indeed.

Perhaps I can quote the words I wrote a few years back when I observed the plight of elderly people living on their own: 

No familiar faces with whom to speak accustomed words
Thoughts for sharing now in one memory locked
Long days sheltering in mists of apathy
Or awareness in a world grown strange
To live beyond one’s time brings only sadness
If the passing years are spent alone

JOYCE SMITH
82-year-old member of Sotheby Centre

• I WAS shocked to read that Islington Council plans to withdraw funding from the much-loved and well-used day centre at Sotheby Mews, Highbury (Day centre for elderly closure fears, August 20).

I live next door to the centre and know many of the pensioners who use it; this news has shocked and horrified them.

Centres like this are the backbone of many communities and provide a much-needed lifeline to those who use them.

Has the Labour council got an ulterior motive? Does it want to sell the land to pay for its expensive pet projects?

The centre is in one of the most desirable and expensive areas of Islington and must be worth a lot of money – more money to spend on their barmy ideas? Who knows?

The politicians in charge of the Town Hall have the wrong priorities – glossy newspapers, highly-paid council officers and spin doctors, and pet projects that waste millions of our money.

The council needs to be upfront and tell us if it is going to axe the centre.

It’s not the first time Labour has tried to close it. It tried the last time it ran the council.

PAUL SYMES
Sotheby Road, N5