Council set to fine food hand-out volunteers
June 2011
If you want to volunteer in the City of Westminster to distribute food to the homeless you could be in for a nasty shock
It appears that Westminster City Council have not read Lord Hodgson’s Red Tape Task force report about the barriers to volunteering.[i]
In an interesting illustration of what happens when power is ceded by central government to local authorities, the council is proposing to introduce a bylaw banning the distribution of food in a large area of the borough and make it an offence to sleep out. As Jad Adams, chair of homelessness charity Nightwatch puts it: “This is a cruel and absurd proposal that is nothing but the criminalisation of the poor and those who would help them.”
He calls on volunteers to defy the law if required to take action that “will be a co-ordinated and disciplined response with media coverage to shame Westminster if they persist.”
In his letter to The Times on 24 May 2011, Adams comments:
“It is pleasing to see that David Cameron still believes in the value of volunteering, in ‘the many brilliant things that people are doing to help each other in our communities’…Perhaps he could tell that to his colleagues on Westminster Council who are pushing ahead with their attempt to introduce a bylaw to punish volunteers who distribute food to street homeless people in the borough. These representatives of the Big Society in action will face a fine of up to £500 if Westminster Council is successful.
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from Cass Business School. She has been one of the judges for the non-profit category of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Excellence in Marketing Awards for the second year running.
She has also acted as clerk to the trustees of a small almshouses charity and as a member nominated trustee to a pension scheme of a multinational publishing company.
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