STEVE WADDINGTON, assistant director of housing at City of York Council, says the aim of installing anti-homeless bars in the Rougier Street bus shelter is to deter “recurrent antisocial behaviour”.

The phenomenon of defensive architecture has become increasingly pervasive in our urban spaces.

At the time of writing, there have been more than 1,800 signatures requesting removal of the bars in York. Some readers may wonder why such a furore over a few bars on a bench.

Homeless people are often like you and me.

They have perhaps experienced a bereavement, a relationship breakdown, a loss of a job, a breakdown. Obtaining support and shelter is not always as easy (or logical) as you may expect. Being homeless is rarely a lifestyle choice.

The message of this installation is clear: you are not a citizen. The process is not accidental: it is a form of unkindness that is deliberate, funded and designed to exclude and harass.

The installation of the bars and indeed Mr Waddington’s comments – in which there is a conflation of antisocial behaviour with homeless people – breeds a hardness and intolerance in us all.

As a civilised society, is a response based on moving people to more dangerous spaces really an appropriate response to destitution?

Richard Bridge, Holgate Road, York

 

EVEN if iron bars bolted on to public benches could be shown to moderate anti-social behaviour, the very idea seems so mean-minded as to provoke general indignation and ridicule (The Press, June 24).

But how brave of Steve Waddington to own up instead of hiding behind the anodyne wittering of the usual anonymous “spokesperson”.

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York