DAY CENTRE WINS BATTLE TO STAY OPEN - Reprieve for Sotheby Mews after campaigners threaten to stage occupation

Published: 11 February 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

THE battle to save Sotheby Mews Day Centre from closure was won this week as the Town Hall caved in to pressure from angry pensioners and their supporters.

The Labour-run authority had planned to shut the centre for the elderly in Highbury as part of a £52million budget cut needed to comply with government austerity measures.

But after an impassioned campaign by elderly users of the centre, Islington’s anti-cuts movement and allies in the borough’s ruling Labour group, the council leadership announced a reprieve for Sotheby Mews on Tuesday.

At the borough’s anti-cuts march on Saturday, Sotheby Mews user Liz Clare had called on protestors to occupy the centre to prevent its closure. 

On hearing of the U-turn, Annie Crozier, 70, from Aberdeen Park, Highbury, said: “It’s very good news indeed – it’s a great centre.”   

And Rhoda Gibson, 85, of St Thomas’s Road, Finsbury Park, added: “I prayed it would keep open and now I’m happy.” 

An unnamed voluntary group is set to take over the centre off Sotheby Road, which will continue to provide services for older people.

Labour adult social care chief Councillor Janet Burgess said: “It’s a wonderful resource. It would have been difficult for people to have gone to other day centres in many cases.

“And we just got such a lot of interest in it from other people – people wanting to help out.”

The centre has been run by Age Concern with an annual council grant of £166,000.

Activities offered include keep-fit, gardening, trips, parties, massage, tai chi, indoor bowls, yoga, line-dancing, cake decorating, a lunch club and hairdressing.

But under the new plan a voluntary organisation will run the centre with a grant of only £30,000.

It is likely that the elderly will be asked to share the centre with other age groups.

While most users of the centre welcomed the reprieve this week, leading campaigner Ms Clare, 73, of Petherton Road, Highbury, was much more sceptical.

She said: “It’s a glimmer of light – nothing to say hallelujah about because there’s going to be a lot of strings attached and if we don’t like the strings then we’re in trouble again.”

She questioned whether services would be adequate, given the cut in grant support. “£30,000 is not going to do a lot by comparison with £166,000,” she said. “What’s it going to give us – a cup of tea and a biscuit?”

It is not clear whether the new group will be ready to take over on March 31 when Age Concern’s grant runs out – so Sotheby Mews may shut temporarily.

Cllr Burgess apologised for the lack of clarity in the announcement. “I know that the people at Sotheby Mews were very upset and depressed and I just wanted to say as soon as possible that it’s not the end of the road,” she explained.   

“I’ve been wanting to say this for some time and I was hoping that it would be more concrete before we went public but these things take time to negotiate.”

At a meeting of the council’s executive committee on Tuesday, Labour council leader Councillor Catherine West congratulated Cllr Burgess on putting up a fight for Sotheby Mews within the Town Hall’s ruling group and persuading members to change their minds. The council is pressing ahead with about 200 other cuts in services.

What they said about Sotheby Mews

Rhoda Gibson: “I love it here. It is friendly and helpful. I was reading in the paper about the closure of Sotheby and I was sad.”

Annie Crozier: “I come to a story-telling session. I come to pilates and I’ve had such good help from the staff with various problems.”

Edna Newman: “I come every day. I’ve been coming here for over 20 years for the company, for the activities. I’d go mad without it. I rely on it.”