Protest Meeting Outside The Centre

On 8 October, around 300 residents of Sands End, accompanied by the children of Langford Primary School and the Silk Street Band, gathered outside the Centre to protest against the Council's plans. Originally we had envisaged this as an action against the proposed closure of the Community Centre - but we soon realised that other groups should be involved, each fearing for the future of their own piece of the community.  We all felt that this Ward was somehow being singled out and picked on. Thus it became the "Save Sands End" protest.  Represented were groups defending the Centre, the Playhouse, the Adventure Project and Clancarty Lodge: each in imminent danger of becoming the victims of "slash and burn".

The children walked to the Centre, accompanied by the band, and all were gathered outside the Centre by 11.00 am.  The children then gave us all a beautiful rendition of "Sands End Centre's Falling Down" - which got an enormous cheer  - before the more important stuff got under way.

First up was an impassioned speech from the Action Group, presenting the argument against closing the Centre.  Those arguments are detailed all over this blog (see specifically our Response to the Council's consultation document in the 16 November entry and 'Important Links' tab above). However, if you would like to read the speech in full, you can:


Read the Action Group speech here

Download the Action Group speech here (pdf)

The microphone then passed to our MP, Mr Greg Hands.  Regrettably, Mr Hands did not show much support for keeping the Centre, merely echoing the Council's rather tired mantra of "services before bricks and mortar" whilst failing to understand, as does the Council, that it is these very bricks and mortar which house all the many and varied services which the community needs.  However Mr Hands did say that he would raise the matter with the Council.  He was then presented with the Petition.

At this point the Labour leader on the Council, Stephen Cowan, said a few encouraging words.  He reminded us that campaigns conducted with this level of vigour and dedication often bring results.

There then followed the ceremonial attaching of a new letter H, missing for so long from the front of the Centre.  This simple omission has been emblematic of the way the building has been regarded by the Council - for a few pennies this letter could have been replaced years ago.

After a few more words from the Action Group, the gathering dispersed.  Mr Hands then held a meeting with representatives of the Playhouse before being taken on a tour of the Centre.  Although it was obvious that he had never set foot in the building, we are sure that he was amazed by its size and the variety of different spaces which the Centre offers.  We believe he was particularly struck by the Sure Start complex occupying, as it does, most of the first floor.  How the Council thinks the entire Sure Start programme can be relocated to a space as small as the Playhouse is, once again, testament to its lack of research - the Playhouse is just not big enough and neither does it have enough separate rooms.

On 8 October the residents of Sands End gathered in their hundreds to demonstrate to the powers-that-be their opposition to the closure of their Community Centre.  They had organised a good-natured protest and taken time off work (and school) in order to be there.

Despite them being invited, not a single Conservative councillor bothered to show up.

•••••

The Fulham Society commented on the day as follows:

The Fulham Society News Letter, Number 83, October 2010

On Friday 8 October about 200 well-wishers gathered in Broughton Road to demonstrate, in a polite friendly manner, their support for The Sands End Community Centre.  The Police kindly kept the road free of cars while pupils from the nearby Langford Primary School sang their song and three bowler-hatted brass instrumentalists played stirring music.  The speakers included Councillor Stephen Cowan, Labour Leader on the Borough Council, and Mr Greg Hands, the local Member of Parliament.  The latter emphasized that the decision on the Centre's future rested with the Council, but that he, personally, hoped it would continue.  Everyone agreed that Local Government cuts were necessary but thought the Community Centre was too important, for the area, to be allowed to close.  It was announced that the Consultation Period had been extended until 10 November.

•••••

You can read the Fulham Chronicle article on the protest here:

The Chronicle - 8 October 2010

Meeting with Greg Smith

After starting up the Action Group, one of the first things we did was to set up a meeting with councillors in order to voice our opposition to the sale.  At this meeting, we presented them with a dossier which outlined, in detail, our case for keeping the Centre open.  We agreed with Cllr Smith that the Centre was run down and underused but put the blame for this fairly and squarely on the Council's shoulders by demonstrating to them that this was entirely their fault: the Centre has been poorly advertised and, to a large extent, mismanaged for years.  For instance:

•  Potential letting business has been turned away.
•  Gym equipment has not been repaired.
•  The Library is under-stocked.
•  Adult Education does not offer enough courses or enough variety.

The Action Group presented Cllr Smith, Cllr Steve Hamilton and officers of the Council (including Gill Sewell and Sue Harris) with a dossier outlining the case for keeping the Centre.  This dossier contained dozens of letters of support from, amongst others, teachers at the Centre, the Police and a child psychologist.  Since then, of course, we have received hundreds more letters.  As we received these, often by email, we forwarded them on to the Council. No letter, no comment and no email was wasted. We thoroughly appreciate them all.

At the meeting Greg Smith, of course, merely stated the case for closing the Centre and all this on purely financial grounds.  At no time did he even vaguely concede that there may be any other option to a straight sale and thus it was apparent, from the outset, that the Council had made up its mind.

Disappointingly, our Ward Councillor, Steve Hamilton, agreed with him on every point... but more of our Ward Councillors later.

The Petition

The very first action which anybody took to try to save the Centre from closure was by a local pensioner, May Patterson, who began a petition. May spent many hours gathering signatures - knocking on people's doors, going into shops and standing outside Sainsbury's - and eventually this Petition would grow to be, as far as anyone can tell, the largest in the Borough's history. When it was eventually presented, at a meeting of the Full Council on 27 October (see later entry) it numbered 6,900 signatures. This number, combined with the 254 signatures on iPetitions.com, gave us a total of over 7,000 signatures. No-one can remember anything like it. But what do these numbers mean?


Politicians don't think much of petitions on the grounds that "people will sign just about anything that's put in front of them". That may be true, so let's take a moment to examine what this number may really amount to, bearing in mind two things: the number of voters in Sands End Ward is about 8,500 - and all the signatures on our petition were gathered within the Ward.


• Let's knock off 10% for people who signed twice (we did notice a few of these)
= 700
• Let's knock off (a generous) 15% for people who signed but who live outside the Ward
= 1050
• Ok - let's knock off another 10% for those who really will sign just about anything that's put in front of them
= 700


Amended Petition Total = 4,550


That is still over 50% of voters in Sands End Ward - real voters who really don't want the Centre to close.


But the truly amazing things we learned whilst gathering these signatures were these:


• Signatories came from all walks of life. Rich people, poor people, people of all races and colour and creed, able-bodied people and the disabled, from the very young to the very old. The issue crossed all those boundaries.


• Signatories came from all political affiliations. We had as many dyed-in-the-wool Tories as right-on Lefties sign - in fact, many more Conservative voters than not. Well, think about it: this is now an established, and safe, Conservative seat. The Electoral Roll alone will tell you that, statistically, more Tories than Labour people would sign. We never bussed in people from Islington - this petition was gathered fair and square in the streets, in the shops and outside the homes of this (Conservative) Ward.


• Many people had never even heard of the Centre.


• Those who do not themselves use the Centre, for whatever reason, nevertheless wish it to be there and to thrive for those who do.


• Many, many people told us that they would rather pay more Council Tax than see amenities like the Centre close.


Overall, the Petition had one very important effect. It allowed us to talk to and question the people of Sands End. We had a dialogue with them... which is more than the Council ever did.