Honeypot Attracts Pests, News At Eleven!

Residents claim not enough is being done to combat the problems in York Road, Southend, and their lives are being made a misery.

York Road. I know it. It's an utter tip.

And that's glimpses in daylight. I wouldn't venture down there after dark for all the tea in China.

Tammi Helman, who has lived in the area for eight years, says things are worse than ever and people feel intimidated outside their own homes.

The 47-year-old said: “There are tenants of the house of multiple occupancies and HARP who are making our lives hell. They hang on the grass of Toledo Road and sit on the walls of our homes.

“They are rude, disrespectful and have no consideration - drinking alcohol and smoking drugs, blasting music out to the early hours, shouting and starting fights then littering or urinating in front of everyone. Some neighbours won’t have windows open or sit outside. There used to be a lot of dog walkers and kids playing here but now everyone stays away.

“It is getting ridiculous and something needs to be done now. Residents are afraid to say anything to them.”

HARP again. Isn't it always?

Mark Flewitt, Southend councillor for public protection, praised HARP’s work and insisted security measures were in place and the council was working with police.

Time this councillor was given the bum's rush, for his support of the bums over the rights of ordinary citizens.

Jackie Bliss, HARP Chief Executive, said: “The idea that all street drinkers in the area are people who have been turned away from HARP is simply not true. We have an active security team at the Bradbury Centre, and in the rare instances where a decision is made to deny access due to intoxication, this is done with the safety of other service users, volunteers and staff in mind.”

Not, you'll note, the safety of the poor long-suffering residents of York Road. Still, at least they can comment on the story to refute the...

Oh!

Shuffling Deckchairs On The Titanic...

Police have arrested a wanted man who was found temporarily living on the roof of a shop in Southend town centre.

I'm glad they qualified it with 'temporarily'....

Southend’s community policing team have been targeting areas in the High Street which are prone to attracting antisocial behaviour and rough sleepers.

Not before time. The last few months has seen an influx in the 'homeless' (mostly street drinkers & the mentally ill) and walking down the high street in the early morning is not pleasant.

They said that one particular spot, the doorway of the old Post Office, which has closed down, has become a favoured place for drinking and begging.

Two weeks ago, PC Brewer moved on rough sleepers from outside the doorway.

'Moved them on'. To where?

That's not even a hundred yards...

Naturally, even these parasites have parasites:

But Gill Garwood, chief executive of homeless charity Harp, said rough sleepers should not be stereotyped as drug addicts - and she wants to see more done to help.

To help the bums, that is. Not the people who have to put up with human excrement in their shop doorway, or see takings drop as customers (understandably) go elsewhere:.

“At Harp, we are here to support people with any issues that might have led to their homelessness situation, including work to prevent people from having to move to the streets in the first place.

“People become homeless for a whole host of reasons.

“We believe that rough sleepers should not be criminalised for being homeless and that is why we are working with agencies in the town, including Southend Council and Southend Police, to try to help people access support that can help them turn their lives around.

“For the past five years, through our Restart Programme, we have encouraged people experiencing problems with addiction to seek treatment with Southend Treatment And Recovery Service, and attend group therapy with Narcotics Anonymous. We encourage residents to volunteer to assist with our services.”

Where can I volunteer with someone who wants to run the bums out of town? Along with this 'charity'?

Gary Turner Doesn’t Live In Finchley Road, Does He?

People living in Finchley Road, Westcliff, say those who go to Harp’s day centre, in Valkyrie Road, end up sleeping rough in an alley running between the centre and their homes. The alley is an access way to the back gardens.

And you won’t be surprised to find they leave it filthy, will you?

Gary Turner, Harp’s service operations manager, said: “We always try to manage the building and the people as they leave the building, but through their own free will they do as they like. It’s an unfortunate scenario. “

Not, I suspect, for you…

A Southend Council spokesman said previously council contractors have cleared the site of rubbish, but it was ultimately the responsibility of the residents.

You have to clear up after your dog if it makes a mess. Why, if you're one of the progressives, do you not have to clear up after your other ‘pets’?

And, Gary, if the grubby shouty woman who stands in the high street near the Post Office every morning demanding spare change from every passer by is yours, please see that she's kept on a shorter leash in future  It's getting tiresome..

Harping On And On And On...

Southend's homeless charity is spearheading a new campaign pressing for an end to people sleeping rough on the streets.

It can only be...yes, you guessed it!

Harp has launched It’s Time, an initiative aimed at halting the number of people living on Southend’s streets.

How? 

Jackie Bliss, Harp’s chief executive, is eager to win Government backing for the charity’s efforts.

The charity is inviting people in the constituencies of Southend West and Rochford and Southend East to sign a letter to Sir David Amess and James Duddridge, asking the MPs to use their influence at national level to make a real, lasting impact on homelessness.

OK, how, exactly? There's nothing in here to say just exactly what 'the government' is supposed to do...

She added: “A return to pre-Covid levels of homelessness is unthinkable.”

Well, you surely don't expect them to be housed in hotels at taxpayer expense forever. Do you? 

Even The Church Has Now Had Enough…

St Alban the Martyr Church in St John’s Road, Westcliff, has sent a note to residents nearby saying it “urgently wants to do whatever it can to stop” people sleeping and drinking in its porches.

No, it doesn’t mean its parishioners! It means the homeless.

Which prompts a flood of angry comments insisting the church should be more ‘charitable’, though just how many of them would be happy to have these people living in their porches, it’s hard to say…

The Rev Phyllis Owen, associate minister at the Grade II listed church, said: “I’ve been at St Alban’s for eight years.

“When I first came here, in the middle of winter when it was particularly cold or wet, you would sometimes get a couple of people in the porch.

“I would say to them, ‘you can’t stay here’, and they would leave after a couple of days.

“But in the last two or three months, we have had a lot of complaints from neighbours about noise. Police have even had to be called.”

The situation in Southend has been getting steadily worse in the past few years. Rarely a day goes by when there are not at least 5/6 ‘rough sleepers’ begging (or demanding!) change from passers-by in the high street.

She added she is trying to work with other services, including the homeless charity, Harp, in Southend, to get the homeless people help.

She claimed she had also been told one of the rough sleepers had been offered permanent accommodation and help, but preferred to stay in the porch.

Bring back the Vagrancy Act!

"Two worlds, one family..."

Gym goers? We'll do you like harp seal pups, you covid-breakers! 

A police raid on a gym in Liverpool which breached Covid rules by refusing to close saw officers pin a man to the floor and wield batons at customers and staff who attempted to flee.

Travellers? Let us close the road for you!

Up to 200 mourners ignored the coronavirus lockdown by amassing outside a church to attend a funeral today as families paid their respects to a tree surgeon who was crushed to death by heavy machinery at work.

Witnesses described travellers binning social distancing rules and drinking en masse, with even children reportedly seen carrying boxes of Stella Artois beer, at the funeral of Daniel White in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.

Bikers revved their engines while police were pictured down Churchgate road as a funeral cortege led by Mitsubishis proceeded to St Mary the Virgin Church, where elaborate floral arrangements were laid.

They couldn't make it any clearer, could they? They will treat people not according to the law, but according to the whims of whichever cowardly commissioner or commander heads them up. 

They aren't a service. They are a gang.  

A Perpetual Crisis Is All In Your Mind

Let's see how the folks at Reactormag are dealing with the recent US election.

I’ve been trying to write a new column for three weeks. I’m pretty sure you can guess what’s been holding things up, distracting me, sending my attention off in approximately 97 directions at once, each more upsetting than the last.

No, I can't really...oh, wait. It's the election, isn't it? 

I’m not going to harp on the looming state of affairs in this country, but I am going to acknowledge that people are scared, worried, angry, concerned, furious, fired up. And distracted.

Nice excuse for slacking on the job, I suppose.  

One bit of advice I keep seeing is to find our lanes. To acknowledge that no one person can do everything, or try to help fix everything at once.

What exactly is there to 'fix'? Trump won. He's there for another term. It's what the rest of the country wanted. What horrors do you think are going to unfold, anyway? 

Book bans aren’t going away. Companies’ obsession with what they like to call “AI” isn’t going away. Authors aren’t swimming in new and exciting (and affordable) ways to promote their work. Tired arguments about the role of politics in art, alas, aren’t going away either.

Probably because you're the ones keeping them alive.... 

Authors write about attempts being made to ban their books; they write about books they love by their peers and friends; they write about the reality of being an artist in these times.

Not exactly starving in a garret is it? 

Are there author events in your town? If it’s safe and comfortable for you to do so, go to them. (It would really be nice if more event hosts so much as encouraged attendees to mask, but they probably won’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t still do it.)

It's no surprise that the blue-haired anti-Trump contingent are still wearing the useless masks, is it, Reader?  

I have a little bit of a hard time with suggesting things that involve public events, these days, because it usually means telling people to go to indoor spaces in which people are often pretending covid is over. (I just had covid last month. It’s not over.)

Of course it's not. It's here to stay, just like all the other flu-based viruses.  

It is an obvious statement, but I am not afraid of being obvious. I am not going to give you any of those treacly, trite, and all too often untrue statements about how books will keep us alive or bring us together or save the day or make us better people. But I am going to say that books, or the stories within them, are art; that we need art, and we need stories, and it’s cool if some of those stories are about better ways for the world to be and for us to live in it.

I very much dounbt that your 'better world' matches mine.... 

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, VirtueSignallers...

Groups of homeless people, who reportedly do not speak English, are pitching up in North Road Cemetery, Westcliff.

It has been an on going issue and now residents are calling on the council to deal with the problem.

That's like calling on King Canute to come and solve your flood problem....

The Echo contacted Harp homeless charity for a comment.

Gosh, it's almost as if these beggars know there's an organisation dedicated to helping them stay in the Southend area, isn't it?

A Southend Council spokesman, said: “We are aware of ongoing issues at North Road burial ground, including rough sleeping and incidents of anti-social behaviour. We have been attempting to take a balanced approach to what is a difficult and complex situation.”

Well, there's your problem, then. There's no need for 'balance' and it isn't 'complex'.

“Along with serving a notice to quit to a group earlier this summer with the support of the police, various council staff members have also been attempting to engage with the rough sleepers and connect them to the many support services available locally.

Further outreach work continues to be carried out to try and connect those rough sleeping with services.

“We will continue to monitor the situation. We are also aware of littering and fly-tipping at this site and this is being dealt with by the relevant teams.”

Naturally, this brings out the bleeding hearts:

Heh!

But We Are Told Not To Encourage Vermin...

...and if that goes for rats, pigeons & urban foxes, why does it not go for beggars too?

Southend could become the first place in Britain to install lockers for rough sleepers to store their belongings.

You have got to be kidding me!

The project, headed by Quiller Hawkins of Solidarity Lockers UK, has taken inspiration from a similar scheme in Lisbon.

ACA Portugal, which is behind the yellow metal cabinets, is now working in partnership with Mr Hawkins. He came up with the idea after speaking to a homeless person who had their guitar stolen. The lockers, which could soon be installed in Southend town centre, will allow people who are homeless to store their belongings safely - reducing the risk of them being robbed and allowing them to own more clothes than they can carry.

Southend is already far too attractive to beggars and homeless drug addicts, thanks to the proximity to London & the antics of group like Harp, which exist solely to ensure that shopkeepers have to shoo beggars away when they open up in the morning.

The lockers will also have an address, as they come equipped with a letter box - meaning that the person using it can register with the NHS and get allocated a National Insurance number.

Not necessarily their own, either!

Mr Hawkins is drawing up plans for the project alongside Mark Flewitt, Tory councillor for housing, planning and sustainability. Mr Flewitt said: “I am optimistic that any measure, soft or otherwise, if it starts giving people some dignity it will encourage people to try harder and, more importantly, the authorities to try harder.

“If we help one or two people then it could make a huge difference to their lives, as they will feel like they are being paid attention to.”

The only people that should be 'paying attention to them' is the police. Begging should be dealt with like any other crime, zero tolerance.

Mr Flewitt told the Echo he has not yet formally taken the idea to Southend Council as he and Mr Hawkins believe it is best to publicise the idea first and gauge reaction from the community.

Of course, the only 'community' that'll actually be listened to will be the tiny minority of SJWs and charities employing people to ensure these people are carefully farmed like sheep...

Trolling Level: Expert!

Well done, Southend Council!

On the day designated to draw attention to the needs of homeless people and ways those in need of help can be supported locally Southend Council left notes on belongings giving a deadline for them to be moved or they would be thrown out.

Because of another of the plethora of 'named days' that plague us now, all normal action should stop?

Who could possibly...

Oh. Right.

Zoey Smith, 35, co-founder of One Love Soup Kitchen in Southend said: “I think what the council is doing is disgusting and makes me so angry.”

*rolls eyes*

“These people need help and support.

“Two hours is not long enough for people to move their items and is completely inappropriate.”

So offer them space to put their stuff in your soup kitchen, Zoe.

“I know last year we had reports the council was removing tents and we made a fuss and the council started treating homeless people better.

“Our volunteers are also very angry about what has happened.”

Not as angry as shoppers who now have to sidestep even more of these drunk & drug-addicted parasites that seem to infest every square mile of Southend, thanks to do-gooders like you and HARP...

A spokesman for Southend Council said: “It is probably most important to stress that we work very hard to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first instance, and once homeless do all we can to provide accommodation.

“Unattended items being left in public areas has been an issue for the borough for some time and needed addressing, for a number of reasons, including safety and security.

“We keep smaller items, including bags and personal belongings for 72 hours, giving the owners time to collect them. We unfortunately cannot store larger items.”

Over to you then, Zoe, and your army of volunteers. Let's see you doing something useful, for once.

So Rare, We’re Shelling Out On A Totally ‘Unnecessary’ System…

That’s convincing, I’m sure you’ll agree?

Harp chiefs downplayed the need for the system, saying attacks on staff by the homeless were rare.

Gill Garwood, chief executive, said: “Attacks are something that very rarely happen. Staff are trained to deal with it, and if it does happen, we will get the mental health services involved.

“No one is allowed on the premises if they have been drinking alcohol. Panic alarms are standard good practice in hospitals and social services departments.”

Riiiight….