PRESTON CITY COUNCIL ASKED THESE QUESTIONS FOR PCN MEMBERS TO CONSIDER.....

This is my response

 

You asked for responses to the questions below... Sorry to sound so negative and politically critical but at Christmas as a follower of one who was born homeless and soon became a refugee and in the words of the Bible

 

2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich

I have to say in response...(on the basis that I take equality to be primarily about economics and power, while I recognise there are structural inequalities correlated with gender, ethnicity, faith, disability etc....)

 

      1.              Can you identify any barriers to access to the groups you work with, to Preston City Council services?

The biggest barrier is the huge gap between people facing homelessness, poverty worklessness and lack of education and the official world with its commuting high paid professionals, administrative gobbledegook and procedures, and its buying in to the punitive and controlling culture of the present government. With the little chance of real help the Council can offer and the risk of losing what little resources, freedom and dignity poor people possess, it's not surprising many of them are very reluctant to approach any officialdom.

 

 

 2.                   How can the services and functions of Preston City Council better promote equality? 

 

They can't unless there is a huge political change at the national and local level which stops the obscene and growing gap between the super rich and the poor.

3.                   Can you identify any area of existing good practice within Preston City Council's services? 

 

Not really...   though there must be some as there are some genuinely committed and caring people among the staff and members of the Council...   who make genuine efforts to help and empower local people.. eg. through some of the processes of neighbourhood management...

 

4.                   What else do you think Preston City Council can do to promote equality, both in service provision, and more widely? 

 

Spend less time doing deals with the Duke of Westminster and his sort of capitalists and devote its resources to justice and equality for the poor who live in our community.

 

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