Planned closure of Centre for Independent Living - Disabled protesters take fight to City Hall

Published: 14 January 2011
by JOSH LOEB

DISABLED residents demonstrated against proposals to close a “lifeline” day centre.

The Centre for Independent Living in Westbourne Park Road could close this year as part of proposals branded “mean-minded and mean-spirited” by opposition councillors.

Campaign groups SOS Westminster and the Westminster Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation are fighting the plans, which they say would remove a “safety net” for hundreds of vulnerable adults. About 30 users of the centre massed outside City Hall on Tuesday, brandishing placards. 

At a health scrutiny meeting later that day campaign leaders expressed anger about the proposed closure.

Margaret O’Halloran, who is wheelchair-bound and uses the centre’s hydro-therapy pool, said: “If the centre closed I think  I’d go mad. 

“There would be nowhere else for me to go.”

A council spokeswoman said feedback from the meeting would be presented at a cabinet meeting next week, when a final decision on the plans will be made.