It’s looking like hard year next year for Camden’s youth centres after another round of cuts by the Tory and Lib Dem administration.
After cuts to Queen’s Crescent, The Haven, Highgate New Town in this year’s funding commissioning process – the Samuel Lithgow on the Regent’s Park Estate now faces reductions - despite being in a high area of need.
Samuel Lithgow Youth Centre (SLYC) funding from Camden Youth & Connexions Service has been slashed from £45,000 in 2007/2008 to £29,792 in 2008/2009 - over 34% of funding slashed overnight.
What’s worse is that this decision to cut funding flies in the face of the hard work local volunteers have done towards raising £1,000,000 to fully refurbish Samuel Lithgow building (which belongs to LB Camden). When SLYC is shut for refurbishment/extension in December, for a year, it will need an extra £15,000 to rent local venues to deliver our services and to hire an office space.
It will also lose income from the fact that groups who normally rent the space will go elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the council seems to have no plan for what replacement services there will be to cover the shortfall. As everyone on the Regent’s Park estate knows – youth issues are on the rise, so cutting Samuel Lithgow makes no sense at all. This is just another set of cuts in a long line of post-2006 council funding decisions.
Monday 16 June 2008
Friday 6 June 2008
Camden weakens Street wardens in hotspots
Good news and bad news for local people with Camden’s excellent Street Warden service.
One the one hand they have been given new powers – and can now issue fines. On the other hand, the service has been diluted - a move labelled "naive" by local residents.
So the experience street wardens have gathered over the years in the hotspots of Kings Cross, Bloomsbury and Camden Town is now diluted.
(Not a peep, I should add, from Camden Town Lib Dem councillors Chris Naylor or Libby Campbell, over the last year on this issue - something which will come back to haunt them).
I say diluted, because with no increase in resources or personnel the wardens service will be much weaker now that it covers all of Camden.
Street Wardens were a good service because they grew trust over time locally, and were respected - especially on the estates.
Wardens were also proactive in ways PCSO aren't - organising football tournaments with local Somali kids hanging out on the streets.
How on earth warden with experience of ASBOs in Camden Town will be able to identify suspects when walking in Fortune Green is a puzzle to me – a point I raised at the Camden Town Unlimited meeting yesterday.
Remember - there was an alternative – Camden Labour promised to establish a fully-funded Street Warden service across the borough in our 2006 manifesto.
One the one hand they have been given new powers – and can now issue fines. On the other hand, the service has been diluted - a move labelled "naive" by local residents.
So the experience street wardens have gathered over the years in the hotspots of Kings Cross, Bloomsbury and Camden Town is now diluted.
(Not a peep, I should add, from Camden Town Lib Dem councillors Chris Naylor or Libby Campbell, over the last year on this issue - something which will come back to haunt them).
I say diluted, because with no increase in resources or personnel the wardens service will be much weaker now that it covers all of Camden.
Street Wardens were a good service because they grew trust over time locally, and were respected - especially on the estates.
Wardens were also proactive in ways PCSO aren't - organising football tournaments with local Somali kids hanging out on the streets.
How on earth warden with experience of ASBOs in Camden Town will be able to identify suspects when walking in Fortune Green is a puzzle to me – a point I raised at the Camden Town Unlimited meeting yesterday.
Remember - there was an alternative – Camden Labour promised to establish a fully-funded Street Warden service across the borough in our 2006 manifesto.
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