There is an alternative to cutting dementia care

Published: 24 March, 2011

• I AM shocked and dismayed the Labour administration is still intending to close down Camden’s purpose-built dementia centre, Netherwood in West Hampstead.

With our ageing population and a predicted explosion in the number of people who will suffer dementia, this is an area of care that Camden needs to develop and invest in. 

Closing this centre is unfair on the families that depend on this service and it is also simply short-sighted. In a few years, no doubt the council will simply need to set up another such centre. Labour councillors constantly claim there is no alternative. This is simply not the case. There are other ways of making savings and we have put forward our alternative proposals. 

This involves making savings through sharing services across borough boundaries as soon as possible, reducing chief office salaries so that we have no more than a 10:1 pay ratio between the highest and lowest paid, and reducing hours of workers (except those on the lowest pay scales) by about two hours. By reducing hours by this small amount and allowing for a better work-life balance rather than making compulsory redundancies, we also save much of the £12million that Labour has put aside for redundancy pay. There is an alternative to the cuts.

CLLR MAYA DE SOUZA
Green Party, Highgate ward