Labour peer, Baroness Kennedy, calls closure of Netherwood Day Centre ‘shocking’

Published: 17th March, 2011
by TOM FOOT

A LEADING Labour peer  has joined protests over a decision to close a day centre for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Prominent human rights lawyer Baroness Kennedy, from Belsize Park, branded a decision by Labour councillors to axe Netherwood Day Centre, in West Hampstead, as “despicable”.

Baroness Kennedy – who has rebelled against her party more times than anyone else in the House of Lords – said: “I think it is shocking to close a facility that provides high-quality care for some of the most vulnerable in our midst. I am not convinced by the case for doing so and hope that land values are playing no part in this decision. The ethics of such a rationale would be despicable.”

The peer – who defended Julian Assange during the Wikileaks founder’s extradition struggle – has added her name to a heavyweight petition of more than 3,000 signatures. 

Actors Ricky Gervais and Roger Lloyd Pack put their names to the petition on Saturday. Violinist Nigel Kennedy, historian Eric Hobsbawm and journalist Tony Parsons have also backed the campaign.

Protests followed the shock decision to close the day centre in Netherwood Street and “merge” services into Raglan House, Kentish Town. The centre is a safe place for vulnerable people with dementia, offering supervised day trips. Its 10 staff allow family carers to get on with their lives. 

But council chiefs say they have no choice after the government slashed £16million from the Town Hall’s adult social care budget. 

They estimate that a £250,000 annual saving will result from its closure.

Carer Jane Clinton, whose dad relies on Netherwood five days a week, delivered the petition to councillors at a meeting with carers at the centre on Monday.

The group was given a report from Innovations in Dementia consultant Rachel Litherland recommending that “de­mentia friendly signage” be put up in Raglan House and that volunteers should be found to ease the transition.

The closure date has been suspended until September. 

Labour social care chief Councillor Pat Callaghan has said she would “mothball” the centre in the hope that funding might emerge in the future to allow it to reopen.

Mental health boss Colin Plant has ordered staff to take down a protest banner hung outside Netherwood Day Centre.

Ms Clinton said: “I brought out the banner at the meeting and said we, as carers, wanted it reinstated. Cllr Callaghan said she would hold the banner with me on the anti-cuts march on March 26. I’d rather she saved the centre.”