Showing posts with label public safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public safety. Show all posts

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

'We have been kept completely in the dark and treated like dirt on the bottom of the NHS's shoes.'

Ms Lindsay said: 'I thought that February 28, 2019, when Lewis was attacked, and the three months that followed before he died from his injuries, was the worst period of our lives. 'Little did I know however that that was just the beginning of our nightmare. As victims, we have been treated disgracefully

Haven't you read about any other cases, that this comes as a surprise to you, then? 

'We still do not know why the killer was released 10 days before he attacked Lewis, who made that decision and why, and who is going to be held accountable for it.'

Oh, we do! Nobody in the NHS. Just like all the other cases. 

'But as if all that were not bad enough, only six years on, we now get to live knowing that the killer is now allowed out at night-time and will surely be released permanently soon 
'What kind of a country is this that we live in where victims of killings are treated like this?'

We live in the sort of country where the people elected to serve the country and keep people safe aren't up to the job, sadly: 

The decision to release people on indefinite detention, such as Fleet, is made by the Ministry of Justice, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State Shabana Mahmood.

In fact they can't even control the people who nominally work to them: 

Sharon Daniel, Hywel Dda University Health Board's director of nursing, quality and patient experience, has said the board would not be making reports public.

Why not? What have they got to worry about? 

Monday, 30 September 2024

More Green Spaces, Or Different, Safer Green Spaces?

Children in the UK urgently need more easy-to-access green space, according to the head of a sports charity calling on private schools to open up their grounds.
It seems Kieran Connolly hasn't seen a map of London, which is absolutely loaded with green spaces.
Connolly grew up in south-east London and played on the Catford Pitz pitches there before they were bought in 2011 by St Dunstan’s college. He said: “Pitz was a bit of a lifesaver for me, and I think many other young people. The gate was just open, you could go in and play. There was space for everybody. You’d go there, meet people, play matches, meet with your friends, spend hours there. They weren’t even locked, you just go there and play for free.” However, the £22,599-a-year independent school initially reserved the fields for sole use by its students. Connolly contacted councillors who were able to help him persuade the school to allow the charity to use its floodlit pitches once a week to provide football sessions for young people in Catford.

Was it the pitch that was wanted, or the safety and security of being somewhere other than any of those green spaces open to the public, I wonder? 

Since August last year, St Dunstan’s has given free access to Sports Fun 4 All for an hour every Monday after the school day ends. The school has also become more involved with local community groups, schools in and around Catford, and its latest partnership is with Chelsea FC, which will include hosting regular tournaments on the site for local state schools. And most recently, through a partnership with St Dunstan’s college, Lewisham council and the Westside Young Leaders Academy, the Lewisham Young Leaders Academy (LYLA) was established to help disadvantaged African, Caribbean and dual-heritage children aged eight to 18. The space is also opened up free of charge to local primary schools to use for their sports days.

I am getting a definite feel from between the lines that the main threat to African, Caribbean and dual-heritage children's enjoyment of sports in public spaces is other African, Caribbean and dual-heritage children in those public spaces, who haven't brought along footballs, but zombie knives and machetes...

While Connolly is grateful to now be able to run the sessions, he would love all children to have easy access to green space in the way private school students have. “It would be better if we had way more floodlit facilities and green spaces for these young people to play sport and football. We’re not here to make the next professional footballer. What we have done is given hundreds of young people access to a free space every single week that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access.

But then where would we build all the extra housing we apparantly need to accommodate this ever-growing 'community'?