We don’t get out much at the Save Leed Crisis Centre campaign so we found ourselves reading the Kirkstall councillors’ website (thanks to Berni for flagging this up for us). We were particulary interested in this page in which Cllr Lucinda Yeadon, now the lead councillor for adult social care, which means she is leading the efforts to close Leeds Crisis Centre, set out her pledges to voters ahead of the 2008 elections. She was voted in on five pledges. Here is her second:
“I will always protect local services that provide support for the most vulnerable in society.”
She goes on: “It is vital that the Labour regain control of Leeds and halt the damage that the coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives is doing to this great city. Through my employment I have worked closely with several local authorities. My work regularly demonstrates to me the importance of the support which is provided by the local authority to vulnerable people. The cuts that we are witnessing in adult services are extremely concerning and I am prepared to defend this vital support for the people of Kirkstall. I am able to see the Council from the perspective of the people it supports and the people that it employs.”
This is the councillor who now says of the Crisis Centre, “closure is the only viable option”. Where is Cllr Yeadon’s sense of “perspective” now? The councillor who pledged to protect vulnerable people now has no plan for 500 of Leeds’ most vulnerable. Good job Cllr Yeadon now has control of the city’s social services, so that she can “halt the damage”.
