Havering Council’s recently been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons: council officer fraud, lavish expenses, ‘toys for the boys’, and Group Leaders storming out of the Council Offices.

On the back of the mass scandals and large allowances we have the future of adult social care and childrens services in deep danger.

Liberal Democrats across the Country have aimed to protect these services whilst we get out of the difficult economic mess created through excessive overuse of Private Finance Initiatives (such as our own Queens Hospital and the local trust’s £150m debt), the failure to curb spending after Labour’s Spending Review in 2007, and the global market crash.

Embedded in the Council’s papers on Children’s Services are these nuggets:

• “the withdrawal of funding for the re-provisioning of the Angel Way development”
• “move away from fixed based services would enable greater flexibility and nuance in service delivery through a street-based provision”

Whilst the council faces making some very difficult decisions as a result of government spending cuts, surely the worst value for money council in London (44% according to the last poll commissioned by IpsosMORI) with such a host of recent spending wastes should be able to restructure the council to ensure frontline services are protected as their current mantra describes.

‘Street based services’ as in the ‘Mobile Libraries’ that have been floating around in Romford Town Centre are NOT adequate for the provision of care for vulnerable children and teenagers.

They do NOT provide a safe haven for kids who are being abused, or face discrimination or torment in their home.  They don’t provide a safe place to be counseled or to share their experiences with those of a similar age group suffering from the same abuse.

One of our activists in Cranham, Mark, was a user of these services and benefited greatly from them.  He graduated from the University of Reading with a Bachelor of Arts and the staff at Angel Way and his youth group which faces a loss of ALL its funding (like other groups) helped both him and many of his friends.

Havering Liberal Democrats are proud to join calls to save the essential services provided by the youth service and will be meeting residents across Havering to put their voices to the Council along with our activists.

Sign our petition online here at www.is.gd/saveouryouth.