Stafford Borough Council Should Come Clean On Bethany Plans

Written by Cllr Barry Stamp on Sat 19th Mar 2005

The would be Liberal Democrat MP for Stafford has today called on the Borough Council to come clean on how they intend to fulfil their statutory duty to the towns homeless once the Bethany Project closes it doors at the end of June.

Barry Stamp said he was concerned that having attended various meetings over the past couple of weeks he was not convinced the Council had a workable strategy to overcome the problem.

"Since the announcement was made that funding for the Bethany Project was being withdrawn from the end of June, I have held a series of meetings to try to find out how the Borough Council intends to fulfil its duty to the homeless in the town. What is clear is that the ground is constantly shifting and I am certainly not convinced a workable plan has yet been drawn up. In fact I have discovered that the Council does not even know the size of the homelessness problem within the town, as they have not carried out a survey of needs for two years! The only plan I have heard being discussed is one that sees the current hostel being run down as much as possible before the residents who are left are transferred to the other two Bethany sites within the town. However as these buildings are also full I cannot imagine how this will work. You certainly cannot fit three buildings worth of residents into just two!"

"I am also concerned to learn that the existing Bethany building must be knocked down before the new hostel is built. This is news to me, as from the very first days the plans for the Tesco site were discussed, I had always understood that there was sufficient room to build the new hostel while the old one remained open. I certainly do not want to see the old building on Newport Road kept in the long term, but it would make a lot of sense to keep it standing while the new one is built."

"The Council really must come clean with what it is thinking. It is important to not only keep the current residents and staff of both the Bethany Project's Newport Road and Lovatt Street sites well informed of what is proposed but also the residents of the Borough as a whole," said Barry Stamp.