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Tottenham should stop looking East...

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,344
129,918
...and take a look around it's own community. Surely this is a great cause for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation?

Tottenham and Wood Green pensioners to battle closure of old people’s homes and day centres

PENSIONERS have been shocked by a Haringey Council decision to close old people’s homes and day centres to save cash.

Elderly campaigners said they would not go down without a fight as the council confirmed TWO care homes and FIVE day centres in Tottenham and Wood Green would be closed.

Many pensioners have attended popular centres that host lunch clubs, bingo, tea dances, and many outings, as well as vital services such as footcare, for 20 years or more – and others face losing their homes altogether as old people’s homes are shutdown.

The moves were announced on Friday (December 17) when Haringey Council revealed the first wave of cuts to wipe £87million from its budget over the next three years to meet spending targets – the largest cuts in its history.

Retired accountant David Singh, 74, chairman of the Haringey Forum for Older People, said: “I’m absolutely shocked that these cuts are going out and affecting older people that have worked for 35 or 40 years and put money into the kitty.

“This is not fair. It’s grossly unfair that these people will be affected. I’m really, really disappointed and annoyed about this.”

Services for older people are the hardest hit in the first wave of cuts – and the east of the borough is worst affected.

Two drop-in centres, which run lunch clubs popular with many pensioners, will close by summer 2011 at The Irish Centre in Pretoria Road, Tottenham, and Woodside House in High Road, Wood Green.

Woodside Day Centre in White Hart Lane, Wood Green, which supports 45 vulnerable older people, will also close by April 2012.

Pensioners groups say many people rely on day centres as a social lifeline and more than 80 pensioners from the I Can Care group, who use services at Woodside House, mounted a vigorous campaign to save it when it was threatened two years ago.

Raj Doshi, chairman of I Can Care, said: “For them this will mean back to their prisons! Many of these people live alone, they have nobody, this is the only life they have.

“People are going to realise that they’ll lose this forever if they don’t stand up now. I think we will not go down without a fight and embarrassing the council, saying you are hitting the most disadvantaged here.”

Two old folk’s homes have also been earmarked to close by April 2013. They are Broadwater Lodge Older People’s Home in Higham Road, Tottenham, and Red House Residential Care Home in West Green Road, South Tottenham.

Mr Singh, who lives on Broadwater Farm Estate near to Broadwater Lodge, said: “Broadwater Lodge is at the centre of our heart here. Some people have lived there for over a decade. It will have a detrimental impact on their lives. If you’re saying they have to leave, where will they go?”

Care for people with physical disability and sensory impairments will also cease in the east of the borough as two more day centres providing specialist care are closed.

The Haven Day Centre in Waltheof Gardens, Tottenham, will be shut down, and The Grange Day Centre in White Hart Lane, Tottenham, will be merged with The Haynes Centre in Crouch End, by April 2012.

Haringey Council says the “speed and scale” of Government spending cuts has left little room for manoeuvre in addressing the unprecedented £87 million black hole.

The Government is making Haringey find more than half of the savings - £46 million - in the next year alone and it has been forced to take swift action.

The first wave of closures will be put out for consultation and brought back to the council’s cabinet in January.

Labour councillor Joe Goldberg, cabinet member for finance and sustainability, said: “We have to make some incredibly tough decisions and we have to make them very quickly or they won’t have a great enough impact on next year’s spending.

“Haringey is one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, and yet we are facing some of the harshest cuts as the Government shifts resources to more affluent areas.”
 

shakus

Member
Dec 14, 2005
226
28
Being a cynic I would say that if Haringey Council can't even look after it's own people, mostly the ones who need it the most, the elderly and willing to disrupt their way of living what chance does THFC have? I really feel sorry for those affected by the Public spending cuts, brought on by mis-management / poor investment decisions and obscene waste of the last 14 years or so.
It would seem that the council being broke would explain the reason for the high cost of our project and the reason why there is no room for negotiating any concessions or compromise.
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,344
129,918
  • Thread starter
  • Staff
  • #6
Spurs moving out of the area will only make things worse too. I wouldn't say it's the clubs job to look after this kind of thing, it isn't. But this is at the heart of the community, where a football club should be involved and I don't see this kind of situation stuck in the middle of an Olympic park. The elderly of the area were probably the lifeblood of the club during the glory years. The last voices of that era. To confine them to the silence of their own homes by taking away their communal meeting places is another nail in the community coffin.
 

TheGreenLily

"I am Shodan"
Aug 5, 2009
12,023
8,699
Spurs moving out of the area will only make things worse too. I wouldn't say it's the clubs job to look after this kind of thing, it isn't. But this is at the heart of the community, where a football club should be involved and I don't see this kind of situation stuck in the middle of an Olympic park. The elderly of the area were probably the lifeblood of the club during the glory years. The last voices of that era. To confine them to the silence of their own homes by taking away their communal meeting places is another nail in the community coffin.

Spot on
 

PT

North Stand behind Pat's goal.
Admin
May 21, 2004
25,468
2,408
Spurs moving out of the area will only make things worse too. I wouldn't say it's the clubs job to look after this kind of thing, it isn't. But this is at the heart of the community, where a football club should be involved and I don't see this kind of situation stuck in the middle of an Olympic park. The elderly of the area were probably the lifeblood of the club during the glory years. The last voices of that era. To confine them to the silence of their own homes by taking away their communal meeting places is another nail in the community coffin.

The problem will be when 50000 meander down the high street holding up the buses that these old dears are on making them late / miss their meals on wheels twice a week.
 

Paxtonite

Active Member
Nov 28, 2004
1,956
32
So if we move out of the area do we ditch our work in Tottenham community and start helping people in Stratford? Oh and what about the Crystal Palace community too??
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,344
129,918
So if we move out of the area do we ditch our work in Tottenham community and start helping people in Stratford? Oh and what about the Crystal Palace community too??

I don't think the club will create links with the community with a move to Stratford. There's no natural tie. It'll hardly be based on Stratford High Road anyway. Football clubs need to return to the community around it, not get further away. With no obvious links, franchising will be the next step.
 

Monkey Bastard Hands

Large Member
Jul 18, 2010
1,411
1,121
I don't think the club will create links with the community with a move to Stratford. There's no natural tie. It'll hardly be based on Stratford High Road anyway. Football clubs need to return to the community around it, not get further away. With no obvious links, franchising will be the next step.

I read somewhere that as part of the proposed move to Stratford, Spurs will contribute to the communities of the London Boroughs involved in the games. I would imagine this would be along the lines of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, but just a wider area.
 

markiespurs

SC Supporter
Jul 9, 2008
11,899
15,576
My Nan used to live a 10 minute walk away from WHL before moving to Broadwater Lodge shortly before her death last year. Broadwater Lodge was really good to her and a really nice place with caring and freindly staff, so if something can be done to save it, then i'd be in favour of anything the club could do to help.
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,344
129,918
Just there, generations rooted in Tottenham in one way or the other. This strength comes to the fore in bad times when there isn't a '35,000 season ticket waiting list'.

RIP to your Nan.
 

Jaispurs

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2005
733
351
Even if we move to Stratford why would we abandon Tottenham?

We could still maintain our head office there, our foundation and community projects. Just because we move to play our games a few miles away why do we have to leave Tottenham?
 

shelfmonkey

Weird is different, different is interesting.
Mar 21, 2007
6,690
8,040
See!!! Lammy and his Haringey chums REALLY care about the citizens of their borough.
 
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