Greenwich Food Bank set to Open by the Team that run New Cross.Deptford & Lewisham Food bank

Due to increasing demand from Greenwich residents, Ray Woolford and Barbara Raymond the People Before Profit Activists who set up the Lewisham Food Bank have extended it to offer help to all residents in Greenwich.
Ray & Barbara have taken on the short term lease of the former Come the Revolution Cafe at 467 New Cross road Deptford and have expanded to offer more space to distribute the hundreds of food parcels every month, whilst the back office will offer Advice on everything from bedroom tax appeals to help, with sanctions on DLA and Welfare sanctions.
The main shop area will offfer space to sell furniture and other household goods, whilst local residents for a small commission can sell unwanted items for a fair price without the need to be ripped of by Cash Converters etc.
For children we will be offering a clean cloths exchange, allowing parents to swap cloths that no longer fit, for ones that do.
We will also be setting up social group to help people learn English  as we have one Chinese client who comes to food bank every week, just to learn English in order to take a more active role in our community and to do out reach help and support for people on their own , outside the system but in need of huge range of support.
You would be amazed at the types of people we help and the huge range of case work we take on.
To pay for all this, Housemartins Estate Agents have paid most of the bills, the amount of food donated does not come any where close to the huge numbers the food bank feeds, so any donations is a huge help .
The Shop/ Food Bank is open Monday-Saturday 11am-2pm we hope to expand hours as help arrives.
You can contact us from 9am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9.30-3pm Saturdays on 0207 231 5656.
Or you can Email raymondwoolford@aol.com

The New Greenwich Food Bank is managed by Greenwich West Residents Nicola and Michael Walters.

We Care has a Co Op bank account; Sort code 08 92 99 Account number 65659328.
£10 a month helps us feed a family and pets plus helps cover Advice centre costs. We are also urgently needing funds to buy our own shop so every penny we raise can go to people in need and Not a Private sector Landlord.


I have at last joined Twitter so you can follow me on Twitter @Raywoolford

We are just in process of launching a Bank account asnd setting up this has a charity called. We Care.
You can also donate and leave stuff at Sabastian Rocha Estate Agents next to Honor Oak Station office hours.
Any one in real need can get food from the Food Bank, We just ask for prove of address and £1 if you have it.as this helps us to buy the food and insure our survival. We get no State or Council aid or help.

We are also looking for people to help with our float at Lewisham Carnival against the cuts on  Saturday May 11 2013.

Deptford Green School. another Lewisham Labour Mess

After untold millions of tax payers money was spent on building a state of the art school Deptford Green School in New Cross ward has been put into special measures by Ofstead, less than year after moving to the new school site.
Headteacher  Mr Bob Ellis from Conisborough College in Catford has been given the role of Executive head teacher.
People before Profit have been consistant in opposing PFI finance deals which has already left to the crises in the area health trust. People before Profit also objected to the old Deptford Green school being demolished, when it could have been used for much needed adult education centre or for Special needs.
The Former school site also had a wonderful 3 bedroom family house that could have saved local tax payers £44.000 a year, which is the cost to keep one family in Bed and Breakfast, but Labour seemed  unaware the house existed and like the school was demolished .
The former school site will be levelled and a much needed communty resource abolished.

Follow rray on twitter@Raywoolford

Welfare Cuts Could lead to..Lord of the flies-Style Civil unrest state Report

Welfare Cuts Could Lead To 'Lord Of The Flies-Style Civil Unrest'

Posted: 27/02/2013 14:53 GMT  |  Updated: 27/02/2013 16:26 GMT

A damning picture of communities stricken by poverty, crime and unrest, tenants savagely competing "Lord of the Flies" style for housing, has been drawn by peers, bishops and charities as the welfare reform bill is debated in the House of Lords this week.
Baroness Meacher, a social worker and Crossbencher in the House of Lords, warned of civil unrest, while Baroness Hollis, a Labour peer, accused the government of creating a housing situation where "tenants will, Lord of the Flies style, compete savagely to occupy that property."


Welfare cuts will cause 'civil unrest' a charity and a peer has warned The Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the Benefits Uprating Bill 2012, which proposes bedroom tax as well as a punishing 1% cap on benefits were being discussed in the Lords on Monday.
Comparing the current lack of affordable housing with the great potato famine in 19th century Ireland, Baroness Hollis said: "Housing, like potatoes, is not a discretionary item-its consumption cannot be reduced except by illegal overcrowding in illegal slums-yet it is being treated by government as though it were rather like going to the cinema. People cannot choose not to have any housing unless they sleep rough or in cars or on cathedral doorsteps.
"By tying Housing Benefit to 30% instead of the 50% median, all government is doing is subsidising the landlords of the least salubrious, most squalid property. However, Housing Benefits tenants will now, Lord of the Flies style, compete savagely to occupy that property. Complain and you are out."
Kevin Gulliver, Research and Development Director at the Human City Institute, supported the Baroness' claims. He told the Huffington Post UK: "People living in social housing are undergoing a number of squeezes already. These are some of the poorest people in society. We think civil unrest is a possibility, along with destitution and erosion of community. People are going to get desperate and desperate people in desperate times sometimes resort to desperate measures."


200,000 more children will live in poverty when the bill is passed A stark portrayal of communities strained to breaking point by lack of accomodation, reduced benefits and rising prices was painted by both the Bishop of Leicester and Baronness Meacher.
Quoting government figures that said a further 100,000 children from working families into poverty, the into the Bish.. said the bill as it stands "seriously fails to protect working families, and will cast children into poverty.
He said the bill "simply does not go far enough to promote work, so that work always pays, particularly for the lowest earning working families" and proposed an amendment to this end.


Iain Duncan Smith has come under fire for the welfare reforms

Meacher, who is a social worker, said government savings from the bill were "only achieved only through imposing the most incredible hardship on many of the most vulnerable people in this country." She asked if the money saved would convert into actual terms after dealing with increased mental breakdowns and the resulting impact on mental health services. She also insisted the cuts would result in increased crime rates, saying: "It is very difficult to believe that we will not experience unrest in communities that are profoundly hit by the combination of all these changes-not just arising from this Bill, but from a combination of everything that is being done."
Her points were supported by Labour peer, Lord Howarth, who argued "there is abundant evidence that incidences of crime and mental illness are significantly higher in more unequal societies" and that the bill will exacerbate inequality.
Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, said in a statement to the Huffington Post UK: "George Osborne announced the 1% cap in benefits with a callous glint, putting short term headlines before the real time hardship he was inflicting on millions.

“The truth is that from April, the most brutal changes to our social security system since the 1960s will hit millions of people, both in and out of work. Many will be forced from their homes. Children will suffer. People with disabilities will be hounded. Foster parents and army mums will not be able to give their kids a home. Millions of people face a cut in income, and hundreds of thousands will be force to food banks to meet the most basic need of feeding their family."
In December the council leaders of Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield wrote a letter to the Observer, warning the government to stop cuts before crime and community tensions broiled over onto the streets.

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You can Follow ray on twitter @Raywoolford

Council to sell Homes for just £1.

Liverpool to sell empty homes for £1

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Published by WARREN LEWIS

Property

| 0 Comments

Liverpool is set to sell 179 properties for as little as £1 – and local landlords could benefit

Plans to drive up housing standards have been proposed by Liverpool council to bring the homes back into use in the Kensington, Granby and Picton areas of the city; with up to 20 of the properties being sold to local people for £1. In return, the new owners would be expected to renovate the properties, and live in them for five years.

The proposals also include the sale of small groups of properties to private landlords. Bidding landlords will be required to join Liverpool’s landlord accreditation scheme, and commit to refurbishing the properties to decent homes standard.

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Ann O’Byrne, said: 

“We think that these plans provide a really good foundation for the future of housing in Granby, Kensington and Picton.

Ultimately, it’s about driving forward housing renewal, investing in the future of our communities and doing everything we can to provide good quality, affordable housing for the people who need it most.

We have been working closely with the local community over the best way forward for these areas, and I hope that these new proposals will give them certainty that the housing renewal they have waited for, for so long, remains a priority for us.”



Follow Ray on twitter@Raywoolford

Do Not Dump on Deptford.. Plans for Chemical waste Plant

Just as  you thought air quality could not get an worse.
 Lewisham Labour Council are set to agree to the opening of a Chemical waste plant in the middle of the Evelyn ward Deptford. This is on top of the Thames water sewage tunnel that Labour has failed to stop and the terrible traffic issues caused by the 8.000 new flats planned along Deptford river front.
After the resent by election in which People Before Profit put this firmly on the political, agenda local residents seem happy with the Chemical waste plant plans and voted Labour who support the proposal , Residents had a choice  and we except the that residents are happy with the plans giving Labour there votes on March 28th.

This week Friday 29 March South London Press have put this campaign on front page of Deptford & New Cross edition

Full details;
Hinkcroft Transport Ltd based at Landman Way Deptford have applied to change their existing Environment permit from food waste to clinical waste and what is called Frag from cars.
The  waste is set to come from Human and Animal Health Care/Research places.
at present Hinkcroft have licence for 200.000 tonnes of food and non hazardous waste per year.
In 2011 Hinkcroft Transport Ltd was prosecuted successfully  after lengthy investigations for persistent permit breaches . In April 2011 they were fined £87.837.

People Before Profit therefore do not think this is a fit and proper company to deal with chemical waste and we oppose this upgrade in permit.

We have 4 primary schools and a family residential area just yards from this site.

We are presently doing door to door petitions and we need all the help we can get to stop this please email if you can coolect names in your street, road, block.We presently have Hundreds of people who have signed, but still need help door to door with petitions.

Deptford is about to get the new Thames water sewage plant, it already has SELCHIP and with 8000 homes planned for the area, will have major issues caused by polution from lorries, trucks etc working on these developments.

People Before Profit  organised  a protest at  3,30pm Monday 18 March this event had media Coverage

Deptford has amongst the worst air quality in England with highest rate of children with asthma.

Object by email;

PSC@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Application details can be seen at Lewisham Town Hall Catford SE6 4RU

Email me to Help.raymondwoolford@aol.com

Follow me on Twitter for local updates @Raywoolford

By-Election Evelyn Ward Deptford result 2013

A very poor result for modern politics, at a time when people need to be standing together and fighting to protect services, our community and our way of life, more than 80% of voters chose to ignore the crises we are in and refuse to vote.
Labour secured 54% of the few that bothered to vote, across London the Labour party has been doing extremly well with swings of 40% and yet thanks to the work of Barbara Raymond and the People before Profit team that work this ward helping local people day and night 7 days a week the Labour surge was held at bay in one of the safest Labour seats in the UK. Barbara secured a stunning 23% of the vote and secured more votes than Tory, Ukip, Lib Dems combined. The best Community vote in 2 years in the UK.
Clearly politics is changing, and People before Propfit is the Future, not the Labour party, when they win in 2015 as we all expect they will, the level of cuts and the failure to deliver at the most basic level will see People Before Profit over take the Labour vote. It is still amazing that huge numbers of People still think Labour is great for the work it is doing on Save Lewisham Hospital. All opposition groups have failed to get across to Labour Voters the role of PFI and the mess in the NHS caused by the last Labour Goverment, When they win in 2015, the Hospital will still close, Labour is refusing  to state publicly that if they win , they will save it., so it will take a Labour Goverment for Labour voters to wake up and realise new Labour are the new Conservatives, Labour will not scrap the bedroom tax or Universal Credit it is totally depending on the foolish and the unthinking to put it back into power. at the most basic level in Deptford we have the new thames sewage tunnel, that Labour has failed to stop, the New Chemical waste plant that people before profit have lead the opposition to, and a huge hike in rents and Council tax for the very poor and yet Labour Voters hit by these charges and cuts still like Turkeys voting for Christmas blindly voted Labour. Southwark Labour Council has frozen rents and Council tax, so clearly Labour had an alternative.
In 2014 We have the London Local, elections, what ever your view about the Lib Dems we need opposition, after last nights vote Lib Dems who worked the ward, had teams calling on voters and put out flyers face oblivion after May 2014. People Before Profit should secure seats for the first time, but what seats are won will seem  tiny to the fast number of Labour councillors that will be elected .
People before Profit are here for the long term, we see the Future under Labour and Tory and will stand firm for People Community and Environment, i hope you care as much  to join us, where ever you are across the world, as this blog has followers in 27 Countries across the globe.
Full Result was Labour Hold; 978
People before Profit 404 (  23%)
Liberial Democrats 139
Ukip and Concervative joint last on 119 Votes each.
Apathy Party the big winner with 80%

You can keep up to date via my new twitter @raywoolford

See my more resent posting concerning the elected Labour Councillor who was not honest and up front with Voters , the scandle has been in the local press, and it is only a matter of time before a further By election is called., if just 50% of the people who promised to vote people Before Profit had voted this time, Barbara ould have been our first Councillor...With more votes than all the other opposition groups together, People before profit is clearly placed to win the New Cross and Deptford seats next time round and insure Community activists with a record of helping the community win, and not more self interested carrer Labour politicians.

Monthly Meetings are held in the ward for local residents to get engaged in Community politics, just email for details of next meeting.
Labour Victor in Evelyn Ward By Election has been de selected by the Labour Party. People Before Profit are expected to win these seats from Labour in Mays local elections.

The Trussell Trust Food Bank founders,Urgent Update June 2013 The people behind it.

20 hours ago (17:47)

The Trussell Trust describes itself as “a Christian charity that does not affiliate itself with any political party”. It is controlled by Tory Party Councillor and Mayor of Worthing, Neil Atkins and director Chris Mould, who splits his time between the Trussell Trust and the Shaftesbury Partnership.

The Shaftesbury Partnership is a “practice of professionals committed to large scale 21st Century social reform.”

Co-founder was Nat Wei, who was appointed the Government’s Chief Adviser on Big Society in May 2010, now a life peer.

Other people in the Shaftesbury Partnership :

Dominic Llewellyn(Conservative party candidate in 2010 )who co-authored the government’s Big Society policies.

Shaftesbury’s recently departed head of operations Antony Hawkins states that he “developed conservative unemployment and welfare reform policy (“The Work Programme”). Planned the implementation of Conservative welfare policies in the Get Britain Working manifesto”.

The Shaftesbury Partnership’s aim is to “design our solutions so that they are both scalable and have sustainable business models, maximising the potential for social transformation”.

The Trussel Trust, was introduced to dole offices specifically as an alternative to the 'crisis fund' previously run by the state

If the Tories believe that their policies will reduce poverty, why are the instigators and creators of its 'Big Society' policies investing in, and directing food banks?

And not any food banks, but a nationwide network of foodbanks, which charge for the priviledge of being set up and are being used to replace welfare and aid for the poorest

You can follow Ray on twitter@Raywoolford  Hopefully you share my Politics. People Before Profit is the new Global Community based alternative growing fasdt in London and Ireland looking to expand every were.
www.Peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk

I was shocked to discover this week that this Organisation gets Millions of pounds in tax payers money as well as local council grants to run this service, and yet they have staff working for free and collect food and cash from the public unaware of this  even though we tax payers already pay them millions. Who is getting this money? after all it is public funds? i was further horrified to discover by using a net work of churches, people as part of the service are requested to Pray. We should all be asking questions as  what is going on here is a very real scandle that people seem to refuse to talk about, because they are seen to be helping the poor. every one getting public funds must be  open to public scrutiny more so when its directors are members of the political establishment awarding tax payers cash.

We Care Food Bank and advice centre needs donations to Buy Food and for running costs for our Advice and support centre and Outreach work. We also need a Van and are looking to buy a shop so every penny we get goes to people and pets in Need and not private Landlords. can you Help? £10 a month feeds a family and pet.
Account Name; We Care. Sort Code 08 92 99 Account Number 65659328.
 Thank you. Please re blog these details and tweet widely.

Food Banks the UN take on a rising crises.

Food banks must not be allowed to become a permanent fixture in the UK and Europe, or used by governments to "clear their conscience" and neglect their duty to protect the country's poorest people, a top UN official has warned.
The emergency food banks are now accepted by governments as the norm, which they “absolutely should not be”, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier de Schutter told HuffPost UK.


Salisbury foodbank volunteer Jill Plant sorts a donation of food at the foodbank centre It is the UK’s government’s duty to protect the poorest in society and part of their duty under human rights law, de Schutter said.
On Monday night, the UN representative spoke about starvation in developed nations, at a talk organised by the charity Just Fair, alongside food bank charity chair Chris Mould of the Trussell Trust.
UN Protocol means he cannot comment on specific UK government policies.
But it is the working poor in Britain that most concern him, the fact that 62% of children in poverty are living in families where at least one of the parents has a job is “very striking” he told HuffPost UK before his speech.
“That is very worrying. It is really unacceptable. It shows wages are too low, people have to work part-time and not by choice, or that minimum wage legislation is not adequate. But it is worrying to see that in a country like the UK.”
The horse meat scandal here too has not escaped his attention. “It is one more reason for us to be discontent with the mainstream food system. People have seen what it looks like and they don’t like it.
“So governments must do more to promote alternatives, small farmers, small food systems. And it is not necessarily cheaper to eat these processed foods.”
Last year, De Schutter published a damning UN report into Canada, and the failure of one of the world’s richest nations to protect its poorest citizens.


Foodbank volunteer Beccy Lang and Graham Herbert sort out donations The country relies heavily on foodbanks, an emergency food system which is growing in Britain, feeding 260,000 people last year.
De Schutter said food banks were “becoming a fundamental feature of our social protection system and they absolutely should not.
“I admire them, but this is not a substitute for social policy which provides people with the right welfare support.
“It is not OK for governments to clear their conscience by these food banks taking over when it should be their responsibility. It should not become a permanent feature. And yet food banks are increasing, very strikingly so in the last five years.”
Mould, of the Trussell Trust, told the talk on Monday night he envisaged every town in Britain would soon have a food bank.
“But it should be the same as every town having an ambulance service. It’s for emergencies. If you need a food bank all the time, you need to be signposted to something more permanent that can help.”
In the first week of February 2013 alone, Trussell Trust foodbanks gave emergency food to 5,150 people in crisis across the UK.
In the same week, Downing Street, during PMQs, stated that foodbanks are there for people who ‘feel they need a bit of extra food’ and that benefits were set at a level that means people should not go hungry.

FOOD BANKS IN BRITAIN

• Trussell Trust foodbanks have fed over 260,000 people since April 2012.
• Trussell Trust foodbanks fed 128,697 in the entire 2011-12 financial year.
• The Trussell Trust is opening 3 new foodbanks every week.
• At the beginning of December 2011 The Trussell Trust had launched 149 foodbanks nationwide, we now have 292 launched nationwide: almost doubling the number of foodbanks in the last year.
• Trussell Trust foodbanks will give emergency food to over 15,000 over two weeks of Christmas.
• During that period in 2011, the trust fed 8,500 people.

The inequality in countries like Canada and the UK is almost more shocking that starvation elsewhere, De Schutter said.
He told HuffPost UK: “Rich countries have more of a duty towards their poor. They can meet their duty to the poor, and therefore they should not excuse their job in meeting it, because of austerity.
“We are on our way to a having a permanent underclass, people living in poor neighbourhoods that have no opportunities to choose different ways to feed themselves, fewer role models to follow and poverty transferred through generations.”


Olivier de Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Right to Food De Schutter said the UN’s human rights representatives were concerned that governments were using austerity as an excuse not to tackle inequality and the problems faced by the poorest in society.
“It is a concern for human rights committee at the UN that governments now have an austerity programme that do not take into account the needs of the poor," he told HuffPost UK.
“And when you have a highly unequal society you have a large group of people with an interest in things not changing. It makes robust social policies more difficult to adopt."
De Schutter acknowledges that starvation is not what occurs in developed nations, like it does in the Sahara or south Asia, but “it means people too poor to choose diets that are healthy for them. They develop diseases, they have health problems.
"The impact on healthcare in the next 15/20 years will be gigantic.”
In the run up to the event Just Fair Patron and Shadow Equalities Minister, Kate Green MP, stated that, "the coalition government says ‘we’re all in this together’.
"But children should not be ‘in this’ at all. Nor should desperate families hit by benefit cuts or unemployment, or those in working households who earn too little to make ends meet. That is why I believe it is time for us to debate the introduction of a legal duty on the UK government to ensure an adequate standard of living for all."
Jonny Butterworth, director of Just Fair, said "It is unacceptable that the seventh richest country in the world cannot ensure a basic threshold of decency for all of its people.
He urged de Schutter to make a similar mission to the UK as he had to Canada, saying the UK “could benefit greatly from a full country visit.”
De Schutter told HuffPost UK has been invited to do an official mission to look at food poverty in the UK, by the government, but has declined due to other commitments. But he praised the government for being “willing to look in the mirror.”
A DWP spokeswoman told HuffPost UK: "We welcome the contribution of voluntary organisations for the work they do with local communities. That is why Jobcentre Plus - for the first time - is now referring people to their services.

"Universal Credit will be gradually rolled out over four years from October 2013 and will directly lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty as well as encourage many to move into work with the knowledge they are better off in work than on benefits."
"Despite paying out £171bn in tax credits over the last decade alone, the previous Government failed to meet their target to halve child poverty by 2010 and far too many children were left behind.

"This Government remains committed to eradicating child poverty, but we want to take a new approach by tackling the root causes including worklessness, educational failure and family breakdown."

SEE ALSO

• Immediate Action Is Needed to Avert Britain's Recipe for Disaster (BLOG)

• UK Economy Losing £5.2 Billion A Year In Tax Evasion, Oxfam Says

• Tory Councillor Chris Steward Claims Food Banks Are 'For People Who Can't Budget'

• Food Banks At Christmas Will Feed Double The Amount In 2012, Trussell Trust Reports

Kevin Murphy And Family Could Lose Home Before Christmas

Single Mother-Of-Three On Food Parcels At Christmas

Trussell Trust Food Bank Boss Chris Mould Says Ministers Lack Empathy With The Poor

The Cost of Christmas for Millions Facing Poverty (BLOG)

You can Get more on the Lewisham Food Bank from Earlier postings. You can follow Ray on Twitter; @Raywoolford
We constantly need Donations to help the hundreds we feed every month, People starting work, but have welfare stopped, and with no wages until end of month, have no food.
Pensioners and families that get a huge bill leaving no money for food.
Disabled who due to have welfare investigated have benefit stopped leaving no income for food.
Small Business people not getting welfare, but due to cash flow have no money to buy food.
Pets, the role of pets on poor children cannot be underestimated or the role they play with the elderly, Our food bank also feeds the Pets to insure they are not dumped or neglected.

New Cross. Deptford & Lewisham food bank details part 2.

After the huge success over Christmas in which we were able to feed almost 200 Households, we are starting to split the food bank into smaller distribution points as well as Opening as a charitie shop, Advice centre for help with appeals on Bedroom tax and welfare and DVLA sanctions. The shop will also offer Chidrens cloths exchange, a service to befriend people on their own and a new Food Banki for Greenwich.
We had found a huge rush and increase in demand from pensioners as the high fuel bills and the increasing demands on the income of the elderly poor was at such a level, many would have starved.
 In order to reach out to more of the elderly, we have linked up with DAGE the wonderful pensioners group in Deptford, this takes some of the pressure of the New Cross office that is presently running 6 days a week and will see a further 50 plus pensioner households get food from here, whilst the pick up and donation points remain the same.
We have seen an amazing show of love for cats, this is the largest area of food donation, in fact we get more food given for cats, than humans or dogs. and we constantly run out of dog food, so clearly this is something we need .
We do not give out processed food, so have not in error given out any horsemeat, whilst the range of people we help from all over Lewisham is truly representative.
We have a great team of helpers and Fareshare in Deptford where the food is sorted is also in need of extra help, just drop me a line and i will link you up.
Big issue this month has been communication, when people are having a hard time, it is easy to take out that anger and bitterness on the girls at the food bank, and as we have increased the numbers of people we help, so has the levels of abuse at the girls, this is not exceptable and should not happen, some of these people should no better, and many of our clients are from professional backgrounds so should understand better how to communicate.
This month we still see far to many people walk miles to get food, some walk and then have just the amount of money they have to get home by bus with the food, the cold weather lead to many people with fuel cards just running out of money and we had to top up many  peoples fuel cards, whilst it is alarming to meet increasing numbers who due to fear of a high bill are not even using electric or heating, and living like the dark ages, by candle light, this poses a very real risk to their neighbours, but that is the level people are living at present with many people telling us that without the food bank and the advice and support we give, would see no point in going on.
When we started the food bank, we never realized the scale of the problems and the huge number of people that are failed by the system and are missed by specialst groups whose  brief is to cater for the homeless, The Elderly, the Disabled, but if you fall outside these groups, you only have us at the food bank to help.
Going forward we are already distributeing  food across Lewisham not just in Deptford once  We are always in need of Food, and Toiletries and to the many who drop items in every month, to our wonderful team of helpers a huge thank you.
New Cross Site will be expanding in May, we are moving into cloths and furniture and advice and support for local residents. We will also offer a charity shop to raise the money we need to pay rent and business rates. You could become a friend of the project and pay £10 per month to help our work.
We would also welcome your Furniture, clean cloths , Food and Health products such as soap, loo rolls, toothpaste. Presently the Food Bank is run by People Before Profit members and suppporters and has to buy most of the food, as donations made are very small when you are feeding almost 500 per week, as well as Cats and Dogs.
Housemartins Estate Agents, Kindly pays the wages of two helpers plus extra food and also gives us money to help out with emergency payments when disabled people,pensioners and families with small children have no money for fuel or food.
You do not have to be a member or supporter of People before Profit to help or to get food and support.
You can Follow Ray on twitter@Raywoolford

Barclays Campaign to Stop PFI / Save our NHS.

 Dear campaigner,
> 
> This email is going out widely to people who may be keen to take part in an 
action planned for 1st March in central London.
> 
> Please forward it to people you know in all parts of London who are likely to 
support it.
> 
> The action will be peaceful and there is no likelihood of arrest. It builds on 
the short occupation of Barclays Bank and the performance of a short sketch 
inside Barclays Branches, but this is intended to be on a much larger scale.
> 
> There will be a planning meeting for those who can make it at 6.30pm on 
Tuesday 26th February at the occupied Harts Lane Studios, behind TK Maxx in New 
Cross and just two minutes walk from New Cross Gate railway station.
> 
> For further information please go to www.SaveLondonNHS.org.uk and click on the 
Direct Action link.  There is also lots of information about PFI issues on this 
website along with a link to an epetition calling for the government to annul 
the PFI contracts.
> 
> This is now the policy of the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign and we hope that 
other NHS campaigns in London will follow suit, overcoming opposition from 
Labour party members who are reluctant to admit that Gordon and Tony made a big 
mistake.
> 
> Please let me know if you want to be kept informed about this planned action 
and please encourage others to get in touch if they want to be kept up-to-date.
> 
> Yours,
> 
> John Hamilton, Lewisham People Before Profit

Meet 12 Midday 1st March at st Pauls in the city for [protest against PFI and its impact on the NHS,

 Dress with Bandages and as Hospital Patients. 

Labour Run Council Set to Move poor families up north

Camden Council plans to uproot more than 750 poor families from London to cheaper locations such as Bradford and Leicester. The move will likely affect around 2,800 adults and children.

Camden says the Coalition's £500 welfare benefit cap means accomodation in the borough is unaffordable. Other councils are also looking at the plans.

Exodus?

Camden currently has some of the highest rents in the country, not to mention surging childcare costs, plus a long waiting list for council housing. But Labour leader at Camden Council Sarah Hayward abhors the move.

She told Nick Ferrari at LBC Radio that scooping people out of the Capital from friends, families and schools is "absolutely a form of cleansing. We need people in London from a variety of different backgrounds and this will have a cleansing effect on many of those people in low-paid work."

She added: "People in low-paid work will not be able to afford to live in Central London any more. That is economically illiterate. We need people in London from a variety of different backgrounds and this will have a cleansing effect on many of those people in low-paid work."

Extra £90 a week

The Guardian reports that the Labour-controlled council has warned that once the cap is imposed from the summer, many families will need an extra £90 a week on average to stump up for their rent.

"Not being given that option to choose where you want to live," one woman told the paper, "and where your children go to school isn't fair. The government is taking away people's homes and the places where they've made friends. To think that someone has the power to do that over you."

Even rents in traditional "grittier" London locations like Hackney and Tower Hamlets have risen sharply in recent years. And with the absence of any meaningful rent controls in the Capital (not to mention in other UK cities), particularly for poorer families, the situation will likely worsen.


If ever there was a need to see People Before Profit Councillors and MPs elected is is at the next elections. we need people to put themselfs forward as Candidates across the UK.
 Labour no longer represents the low paid and the poor. Been hijacked by big business.
Twitter@Raywoolford
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Labour Party in New PFI Scandle as Libor fixing makes matter worse.

Thursday 20 December 2012 10.47 GMT

How Libor rate rigging has put hospitals in crisis

The chancellor's new PF2 fails to address how original PFI deals – based on the Libor rate – are crippling the NHS with debt

Emergency situation … 'hospital closures and bed cuts are planned across the country, triggered by government-inspired deficits which are in no small part due to PFI.' Photograph: Alamy

The cost to the taxpayer of paying for rigged interest rates which resulted in fines of £940m for the Swiss bank UBS was not addressed by the chancellor in his relaunch of the controversial private finance initiative (PFI) to PF2 in this year's autumn statement.
PFI is the way government raises money from the private sector to build public projects such as schools and hospitals. But it has been criticised for providing a lousy deal for taxpayers by being too generous to the private contractors. Under PF2, the taxpayer will take a share of up to 49% in new projects, which the coalition claims will give the taxpayer a better deal.
But how many existing PFI deals were signed on the basis of manipulated interest rates and indexation, causing the repayments to rise annually, and why has the Serious Fraud Office not moved to open all PFI contracts to forensic examination? Unless it does, banks such as UBS and Barclays may continue to profit from deals at the expense of the NHS budget for patient care.
The NHS is generating huge profits and bonuses for the financial services industry under PFI contracts, while repayment terms for the debts are crippling the NHS. In the South London Hospital Trust, for example, debt payments in one of its PFI hospitals, Bromley, are increasing at about £1m a year partly because of complex financial instruments known as derivatives that are based on the Libor rate. Meanwhile, total trust income has fallen by £20m over the last three years. A special administrator appointed by the government is recommending that nearby Lewisham hospital be downgraded to bail out the PFI.
Scores of other hospitals are wrestling with the same problem of a steadily rising cost of PFI repayments linked to inflation. In Peterborough hospital's £411m PFI deal, debts are predicted to reach £54.3m this year. The National Audit Office (NAO) concluded in November that it was not affordable from the word go and should never have been signed. The health union Unison estimates that by the time the trust has paid off the 33-year contract in 2043 it will have cost it a total of £1.96bn. So, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge presided last month over the opening of a near-bankrupt new PFI hospital.
Meanwhile in Portugal, the International Monetary Fund has described PFI deals there as poor value and called for publication of the contracts to allow public scrutiny . In the US, councils and hospitals are considering legal action for fraudulent manipulation of the same financial instruments used in Peterborough and South London. Here, all the PFI deals remain secret and we begin to look increasingly like a banana republic by comparison. The Treasury's new PF2, which allows the public sector to appoint directors to the boards of individual projects, as well as requiring the projects to publish financial performance figures every year, does nothing to address secrecy or the obscene profiteering because the contracts and the financial models, including interest rates, indexation and cash flows, will not be published. It is a fig leaf to hide the mutilation of public services.
Which brings us to the policy on hospital closure. The Health and Social Care Act 2012, which effectively ends the NHS in April, strengthens provisions for making NHS hospitals bankrupt. The system is profoundly undemocratic. Under the new rules the consultative checks and balances usually associated with hospital closures are waived and, according to the Commons' public accounts committee, the Department of Health cannot or will not explain when trusts will be put into the bankruptcy process or how it will work. Leading law firm Bevan Brittan estimates that a trust can be dissolved within 22 weeks of insolvency proceedings starting. That speed is unparalleled.
The NAO has published evidence that 41 NHS trusts and 32 foundation trusts might be in deficit. As a result, hospital closures and bed cuts are planned across the country, triggered by government-inspired deficits which are in no small part due to PFI. However, the NAO has also pointed out that last year there was a surplus of £2.1bn across the NHS as a whole. So we have a tax-financed service generating, from the patient care budget, a surplus for the exchequer as well as profits from PFI for the banks.
If the government put transparency and public accountability before the banks then the policy of shutting down the NHS and hollowing it out, using the smoke and mirrors of financial deficits and PFI, could become a thing of the past.

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Twitter@Raywoolford