WESTMINSTER COUNCIL CLIMB-DOWN OVER ROUGH SLEEPING BAN

Published: 13th May, 2011
by JOSH LOEB

COUNCIL chiefs yesterday (Thursday) said they were scrapping radical proposals to ban rough sleeping in part of Westminster.

But City Hall officials are yet to decide whether to push ahead with another hugely controversial policy – prohibiting the distribution of hot soup to the homeless.

The climb-down came at the end of a consultation period which revealed there was no widespread support for the idea of a by-law barring people from bedding down on the streets.

Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for society, families and adult services, said he would hold talks with soup-run volunteers to try to reach “a solution we can all be satisfied with”.

The threat to introduce a by-law barring people from sleeping rough in a designated area around Westminster Cathedral sparked a flashmob protest and pro soup-run party after it was aired in March.

At the time Cllr Astaire argued that soup runs had “no place in the 21st century”, adding  that there was no need for anyone to sleep rough as hostel accommodation was ample.

He said he was responding to concerns residents had about large numbers of soup vans from outside the city which regularly descend on the area around the cathedral.

In contrast, charity workers claimed there was a shortage of space in hostels, and Westminster Labour councillor Adam Hug proposed his own “common-sense” alternative – a three-point plan involving licensing soup-run organisers who agreed to sign up to a code of conduct.

Last night Cllr Hug welcomed the City Hall announcement, saying: “They have showed they are listening.”

Alastair Murray, deputy director of homelessness charity Housing Justice, said: “We are very pleased. We along with just about everybody else thought that it [the rough sleeping ban] was a very bad idea. It wouldn’t have succeeded in addressing the context; all it would do would be to move people out of the area in a meaningless way and it would have been pointless in terms of outcomes for the people concerned.” 

Cllr Astaire said: “We will continue to hold discussions with relevant parties to find the best way of dealing with the volume and frequency of soup runs around Cathedral Piazza. We acknowledge that soup run volunteers have the best possible intentions but the way they chose to put those intentions into action has been and continues to be problematic and neither benefits those in need nor the local community. However, we now ask soup-run volunteers to work in alternative ways to support rough sleepers. 

“Depending on the outcome of these discussions it might, regrettably, still be necessary to pursue the legislative route based on the proposals we have already consulted on.”