Official reply to this article:
I received this e-mail in response to this article on Friday 6th March 2020:
A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets Council said:
“The Local Voices Project is a time-limited project, which is coming to an end on 31 March 2020. The project was initially funded for two years and was subsequently extended for a third year.
“The council continues to engage with Real and other local disability led organisations and groups to support them with enabling the voices of our disabled residents to be heard in the design and delivery of local services.”
Kind regards,
Rosie (Comms Team)
Communications Officer
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Town Hall, Mulberry Place
T: 020 7364 4128
So I was right. The specialised services and advice provided by Local Voices are being withdrawn. Instead they will have to raise the funds elsewhere, or try to find the solutions to problems with regards thier disability will once again be spread over ‘a range of other services’, so they will have to hunt them down themselves as there have not been any circulars to the Real and Local Voices service users giving them any idea where they can now turn to receive these services and advice.
We already know how incompetent the current home support services in Tower Hamlets are, and here they are placing a further burden on their already over-stretched budgets and staffing.
The only people to suffer from this situation are the most vulnerable in our community, the disabled.
The only people to gain from this situation are Tower Hamlets Council.
IS TOWER HAMLETS COUNCIL REALLY REMOVING FUNDING TO ‘LOCAL VOICES’ AND ‘REAL’
REAL and Local Voices are run out of Jack Dash House on the Isle Of Dogs in East London. They are the only bodies in Tower Hamlets who campaign specifically for the needs of the disabled in the borough.
These two organizations have been working for years building the trust of local disabled people, to whom they supply a Local Voices Newsletter regularly in many formats to the hundreds of disabled local people who need help and support more than any other.
The project is currently focusing on the following areas:
- Accessible Transport
- Community Safety
- Housing
- Social inclusion – including digital and sports inclusion.
- Computer Access and training
- Advocacy
- Local Events
- Many other projects
Both of these organisations are run on a not-for-profit basis, and so funding them is a necessity to the disabled throughout the borough, but there is a fear that funding which is currently from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, may be stopped leaving both organisations scratching for funding and having to fight to continue to exist.
The Thoughts Of Mr Bloggy 
Reblogged this on London's East End Guard Dog.
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