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John Worker |
My mission to trace where £20m goes
Pensioner demands: how is cash for needy spent?
PENSIONER John Worker launched a campaign this week over the secrecy and bureaucracy which he claims surround the way £20.8million of public money earmarked for Islington’s needy is to be spent.
Mr Worker, 71, has accused the Islington Strategic Partnership – made up of leading figures in the police, fire and ambulance services, the NHS and Islington Council – of being “patronising” and refusing to reveal information about how it is to dole out the cash.
But Lib Dem council leader Councillor James Kempton has hit back, saying: “John Worker sees conspiracy where none exists.”
Mr Worker claimed that when he turned up at a recent Partnership meeting at Islington town hall, he was made to “feel very unwelcome indeed”.
The former administrator at the British Library added: “These meetings are not advertised and I was the only member of the public there. I wanted to know how they were going to spend the money – and whether the elderly will get any.
“But the reply was that I didn’t understand the issues and anyway it had nothing to do with me.”
Mr Worker, a tenants’ rights spokesman on the Priory Green estate in King’s Cross and a member of Islington Pensioners’ Forum, said he was accused of working for the Labour Party, which he says he resigned from 10 years ago.
Members of the 25-strong Partnership include Cllr Kempton, his deputy, Lib Dem councillor Terry Stacy, and the chief executives of the main statutory services such as police, fire, ambulance and the primary health care trust.
Mr Worker said he first heard about the £20.8million fund for the borough at a meeting of London pensioner groups, organised by the Government Office for London.
“Five inner London boroughs have this money and we were told to go back and find out how it will be spent,” he said. “That was two months ago. Since then I can’t find anything out.”
Other London boroughs are a lot more open about how they intend to spend the government cash, Mr Worker said.
He added: “As a council tax payer and a struggling pensioner I am entitled to know how they intend to spend this money and, more importantly, whether pensioner services will be getting any.
“For example, they’ve reduced day centres for the elderly in Islington and recently cut a minibus.”
But Cllr Kempton maintained that information about the Partnership and its work is available to the public.
He said Deborah Fowler, chief executive of Islington Age Concern, is a member of the Partnership board, so issues affecting the elderly would not be ignored.
Cllr Kempton said money will go towards helping the young unemployed find jobs, on improving education and the environment and some will be allocated for the needs of adults and older people.
“There is no secret about this,” he added. “All this money is being spent wisely for the neediest in the borough”. |
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