‘A sad reflection of the times’
IAN HAGUE-BROWN, Mapplewell
Unlocked from Covid-19, many people are now flocking to community spaces such as libraries, museums, or village halls, breathing life back into these deserted institutions.
However, the movement isn’t for the experience or the enjoyment of finally meeting friends. Instead, for the warmth which residents are now unable to afford.
Perhaps something good may come of community warm spaces.
Perhaps more realistically, it screams of the failed Conservative and Liberal Democratic control of the last 12 years; unable to future proof a country they have stewardship over.
The name itself, community warm space, sounds like something which should have been consigned to the history books, yet it is borne in this century by a government who lost control. A sad moment in our history.
Stripped of its riches from four failed Prime Ministers, the revolving door of Downing Street is turning once more.
Whilst Conservatives were fighting over their next leader, the country’s financially strained get offered a measly package to survive the winter including a ‘warm space’ for heat. Forced from their homes, still unable to enjoy a basic liberty of freedom.
Whilst the leadership fight may be over, what does that mean for children, parents, grandparents, neighbours, or friends? It’s simple. Cold and damp homes that create health implications and in turn, puts additional pressure on services already at breaking point.
The solution must not be cramming people into a ‘warm space’ for a few hours. Then expecting them to show gratitude for their few hours in the heat as they now sit in their cold and damp home. Conservatives clearly rejoice in the creation of warm spaces. It means they pay less. Their mates get more. Children starve. The elderly die. Families are ruined.
Our European neighbours have stepped in, hitting the bulging profits of the energy companies hard, keeping prices down.
What about our government? Handouts to the rich. Mates’ rates on projects. Banks, whilst hiking interest rates, told ‘you’re safe’.
Financial interventions by Barnsley Council are welcomed. But for redistribution of funding, other services go without. The intervention to keep people in their own homes shows a council that recognises people have a right to enjoy their home.
Austerity has paralysed the ability of any council to effectively act. Shame on those in power and those who propped up the many guises of successive failed governments. The horror of the last 12 years must end. Change must come faster.