Things You Don’t Say

31/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Things You Don’t Say
The Cambs Times this week carries an article about the old Queens Hotel, in Wisbech, that was all set to become a shelter for homeless people.  The plan has been scuppered (Cambs Times words, not mine) by Cllr. Phil Webb.  The paper makes a big deal about Cllr. Webb’s use of the word “undesirables” in his statement.
  
John Elworthy, the editor and journalist on the piece says: “HOMELESS people were last night branded “undesirables” by a Fenland councillor who successfully fought off a £700,000 refurbishment of the former Queens Hotel, Wisbech, to accommodate them. “ 
      
Later, Cllr. Webb is quoted as saying:
“My motion said simply that it was in the wrong place- Wisbech is not very attractive and this could make it less attractive,” said Cllr Webb. “The people who would use the centre are a difficult thing to describe but, without being nasty, they are undesirables.”
  
Of course, this makes great “news”.  The Cambs Times grabs a hold of the word which Cllr. Webb was clearly silly to use and shakes it like a dog with a bone, while (deliberately?) ignoring the actual pertinent issue.
  
I’m glad this isn’t my division because this is a thorny subject and sometimes it’s nice to not be the councillor who has to field these sort of problems.  The fact is, pretty much nobody I’ve spoken to who lives anywhere near this proposed shelter was ever in favour of it.  They have  a variety of reasons, some more politically-correct than others.  But the will of the area residents is not in much doubt.  The will of the area businesses is not in much doubt.  Apparently the will of the Town Council is pretty obvious too.
    
So what Cllr. Webb has done is speak on behalf of those people and try and stop a project that many desperately did not want to go ahead.  We can pillory him for using inappropriate language.  It certainly wasn’t sensible, or particularly fair, to call people who are troubled and down-on-their-luck “undesirables”.  But what Cllr. Webb has done on this issue is speak the majority view.  Isn’t that part of a councillors job? 
   
I don’t agree with him that Wisbech is not attractive.  Just lately it’s been an extremely pretty little market town.  I would never condone the language he used about the homeless, but I suspect he really did have no intention to cause insult and has just committed the cardinal offense of forgetting to consider the gravity of his adjectives.  But let’s not let that colour our consideration of what has actually gone on here.  His choice of language in this instance may have been ill-considered.  But the end result, many will think, was not such a bad thing for Wisbech.  
   
People who are homeless, have drug and alcohol problems, or other difficulties obviously have to be helped.  They obviously have to go somewhere to get that help.  No decent person would deny this.  But there are right places and wrong places.  And there is such a thing as balance.  Wisbech already has a number of such places including the Ferry Project (an excellent service) and the new AddAction that resides in the building that used to be the Registry Office in Wisbech’s main car park. 
  
The Cambs Times points out that the Town Council also oppose the Queens Hotel being used in this way.  Again, these are local councillors speaking for the people in their areas.  The Town Council are only saying what many of the residents of Wisbech are telling them.  Again - isn’t that their job?

Cambs Times response?  Another of their ”quicky” online polls.  You might remember they ran one of these during the County elections whose result assured us that Labour were neck-and-neck with the Conservatives - shortly before they met electoral oblivion across the county.  Look, I have no problem with bias in the press really.  A journalist or an editor obviously has to have a position and that is likely to colour their approach to the job.  But would it kill our local paper to at least try and look at a story from both sides once in a while?
   
It’s easy to paint Cllr. Webb as the bad guy.  He set himself against a shelter for the homeless.  He called them something he should not have.  Then he single-handedly managed to stop a development that was going to help them.  Like some sort of Bond Villain he manipulated a meeting in a dastardly fashion.  Or so the press would have us believe.  But I wonder if the businesses and residents of the surrounding roads will perceive it in quite the same way?  Or will some of them be quietly thanking his intervention?  I know several who will be doing just that. 
    
Right or wrong?  You decide.

Posted in Cambs Times, Wisbech | 4 Comments »