why you should come on friday

The council introducing school children into the equation of the debate over the future of The Bethnal Green Centre is a cynical, transparent and futile attempt at diversionary tactics. Council property development officers get paid £56,000 a year, for this sort of money we can expect them to come up with some clever ideas of how to get their hands on a site worth millions. This is presenting Hobsons choice at the last hour.
To say we need to close classes at the Bethnal Green Centre to make way for a school for two years is a bit like saying we need to close the Fire Station to make way for the Ambulance.
The Bethnal Green Centre provides people with learning mental and physical disabilities with equality, empowerment and skill. Pensioners who remember spitfires in dog fights over Bethnal green, mix in workshops with pregnant mums and people from all races and classes in a friendly and safe environment which occupies their hands and minds and encourages community and unity.
Clair Hawkins cannot possibly have expected the tirade of furious anger that met her from the packed canteen of over 120 tutors and students at the Bethnal Green Centre last Thursday. One student, when pressing it’s importance said she couldn’t read before she came there. Wheelchair bound biker ‘Spike’ said via his Steven Hawkins style talking device that he “would be very upset if his class closed”. He brought along a beautiful carved wooden motorcycle as an example of his humbling skill and staggering patience.
Management have warned tutors they will face disciplinary action if they talk to the press without going through the council press office which will only give their side of the story and to keep secret from students the planned class closures in September . As tutors are on temporary contracts which say we musn’t bring the council into disrepute this is tantamount to intimidation and restricting freedom of speech, centre security have been told not to admit the press which is why I have put pen to paper and forwarded photo’s from students.
When students asked why the school children couldn’t be housed in the ‘Rich Mix’ centre, Clair Hawkins replied that there were ‘management problems’. It’s funny that Clair feels the management of the Rich Mix Centre are more important than the people who have made the Bethnal Green Centre their home. What’s wrong with the building opposite Rich Mix about to be demolished to make way for the 25 storey office block the council have approved. Clair also said she would hold regular meetings with the people of Bethnal Green Centre and that there were no firm plans for the sight once the school children had moved out. This smacks of either incompetence or fiction, as the building has loft apartments written all over it.
Some might say that funds should be made available for the rescue, expansion and preservation of the Bethnal Green Centre as the community centre that it is. And run properly by people commited to it rather than those who claim to manage or represent us. The Bromley by Bow Centre is an example to look at for inspiration. Current management forget to pay people, get the address & telephone number wrong in the course guide and vital health and safety equipment takes months to arrive. It’s a little known fact due to lack of out reach, that young people,under 19 can go to B.G.C for free, to harness their creative rather than destructive talents. Would we rather they were in B.G.C taking car maintenance, stained glass and weight lifting classes? Or on the street stealing cars, smashing glass and weighing out crack.
When the people of Bethnal Green talk about Brown, they’re not refering to the prime minister or the Stone Roses front man, they’re using the slang term for heroin, which has exploded in our community (see the councils own report “Heroin the Drug of Choice”)
Tony Blair told us “Things Can Only Get Better” yeah right! We’ve got Brown at the top and Brown at the bottom. They take the carrot and we take the stick.
This isn’t Bob Geldof trying to save Africa, we can win this one so act fast! spread the word!
In order to maintain anonymity, I must sign myself,
The Wizard of Boz

THE BETHNAL GREEN CENTRE SUPPORT GROUP
PUBLIC MEETING @ THE BETHNAL GREEN CENTRE 229 BETHNAL GREEN ROAD(BEHIND THE POST OFFICE) FRIDAY 28 MARCH 12.15