Labour Foul Up Residential Home Plans
Plans passed by the Labour administration last autumn to reorganise residential homes are in big trouble, the new Liberal Democrat administration have discovered.
The use of Bengough House in Henbury, a last minute addition to Labour’s plans in September is in doubt. Failure would create serious problems for the whole plan for Bristol City Council’s residential homes.
When Labour finally brought their plans to Cabinet on 4th September 2008, after a long period of dither and delay, they included at the last minute a scheme to take over Bengough House from Bristol Charities and use this as a home for people with dementia. This action followed pressure put on them that there was no planned provision in North Bristol at all.
It now seems that the previous Labour administration failed on two key accounts: to evaluate the scheme properly before September 08, and to push it forward since that date. However it has emerged due to the lack of progress that Bristol Charities may well have to pull out. As a result Bristol people are at risk of having no home for people with dementia in North Bristol, so families may face long journeys to visit their relatives in homes elsewhere in the city.
Cllr Bev Knott, Cabinet Member for Care and Neighbourhoods (Bishopston, Liberal Democrat) said:
“I am appalled and saddened to find this mess. It is clear that Labour rushed through this scheme at the last minute without thinking it out, and then utterly failed to understand or deal with the problems.
“It is clear that something has gone very badly wrong here over the last six months and the Deputy Chief Executive will be heading an inquiry into how this happened.
“I have asked Council Officers either to sort out the problems of this scheme, or find other ways of providing a home in the North of Bristol.”
Liberal Democrat investigations have shown that there are a number of problems with the Bengough proposals:
(1) Six months on it is unclear if there will be sufficient fire safety arrangements. This is something that should have been ascertained long ago.
(2) There is insufficient parking for visitors and no clear means of increasing the provision. Parking is particularly important in a home of this nature and a handful of spaces is not felt to be sufficient.
(3) The costs of refurbishing the property have doubled from £450,000 to £950,000.
(4) There is still a long way to go to agree on how to compensate Bristol Charities for the site.
The Labour Executive Member responsible for this has been Cllr Derek Pickup (Henbury).