WITH regard to the people engaged in a sleep-in at St Helen’s Square (The Press, July 17), I wonder how many of them would let a so-called homeless person sleep on their garden bench or in their spare room?

One day last week I passed the Rougier Street bus shelters to see one of these homeless people asleep on the bench in the bus shelter with his feet stuck through the hoops and his bottle of alcohol within easy reach.

At the same time elderly people were having to stand waiting for buses because, as usual, the bus shelters were a mess of cigarette ends, empty cans and discarded packets of various types and the place stank to high heaven of body odour and urine.

Two police community officers eventually came, woke him up with difficulty and moved him on. Next day he was asleep on a bench in Holgate Road.

The sleepers in St Helen’s Square should also remember that some of these so-called homeless people at the end of the day, after holding their hands out for money, return to the Arc Light Centre, council flats or houses which are again paid for by the rest of the hard-working community.

A P Cox, Heath Close, Holgate, York

 

RICHARD BRIDGE is to be congratulated on his organisational skill to produce a 5,000-plus petition against metal bars on public seats and to get dozens of people to lie down in sleeping bags in solidarity with rough sleepers (The Press, July 17).

Now if only he and his supporters could channel all that energy to open up their homes for an overnight stay for these vulnerable people there wouldn’t be any need for steelwork and the bus shelters could remain free of vomit and urine.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayors Walk, York

 

I LEFT the City of York Council meeting last Thursday night a lot happier than I went in.

Expecting the new leadership to be young, brisk and crackling with new ideas and policies to shake up our city and put us firmly on the path to somewhere better, the front bench actually put me in mind of a David Attenborough documentary on the last days of a group of old water buffalo.

Cllr Chris Steward has a fund of unfunny one-liners and his five policies seem to involve: (i) blaming Labour for everything (ii) unlimited green bins to the ‘country voters’ as a thank you (iii) inviting Lewis Hamilton to try out the new Woodthorpe circuit when the 20mph signs are removed (iv) making sure that Government cuts go through as quickly as possible (v) thinking up ways to blame Labour for all the things that will go wrong from now to 2019.

With this lot in charge it won’t be long before we residents are admitting to ourselves that we might have got it wrong in May.

Pity we may have to wait four years to put it right.

William Owen, Oakville Street, York

 

IT’S important not to get too carried away by the York Tory-Lib Dem coalition’s rhetoric on their “emergency” council budget.

A more appropriate title would be the “free prize draw giveaway” budget.

It’s popular for York Tory-Lib Dem leaders to sling barbs around to create a myth around supposed mismanagement of council finances by the previous Labour administration.

With your article quoting the council leader’s weak attempts to present Labour as financially incompetent but not including the detail, it is worth reflecting that Labour delivered over £63 million of savings in four years and balanced the budget every year.

Additionally, the council’s statutory finance officer has frequently reported on robust financial management and favourable audits.

Indeed, it is only through a significant underspend in 2014-15 by Labour that the York Tory-Lib Dem coalition has been able to make these giveaways tailored towards those areas that elected them.

In doing so, they have clearly identified an ideological vision that leads them to prioritise services for the comfortable over services for the vulnerable.

That is not the way to create a fair and equal council that serves residents across the whole of our city.

Cllr Neil Barnes Labour spokesperson for finance and performance, Cromwell Road, York