99% Vote against Tory Sheltered Housing Plans

At a meeting of Kent County Council on 21^st June 2007 the Tory administration had to admit that, following a consultation exercise with service users about the future of Wardens in sheltered accommodation, some 99% of those responding rejected the proposals in the consultation document.

From a question asked by Leslie Christie, County Councillor for Northfleet and Gravesend West, it was reported that 920 responses had been received and that only 11 had supported the proposals.

Despite this, Kevin Lynes Tory Cabinet Member and Chair of the Commissioning Body who will take the final decision indicated that the views of the 99% will be ignored. He argues that because there are 250,000 older people in Kent and only 19,000 were consulted this is not a representative view.

Leslie Christie, Labour Group Spokesperson, said: “This is yet another example of Kent Tory arrogance. They carry out a consultation exercise and because it does not provide the answer they would like they seek to undermine the outcome. Of the 250,000 older people in Kent 90% would never expect to be in need of sheltered accommodation and certainly never expect to use Supporting People money. They were not consulted nor should they have been. Only those affected should be consulted and that is what happened.

The question is will Tory KCC take those views forward to the Commissioning Body which will take the final decision.”

See accompanying press release of 19th June 2007 for more information.