This letter was written in response to a news item in the Harrogate Advertiser concerning an on-line petition by around 800 local people to the Council asking them to reverse their decision not to offer help to refugees.
Surprise, Surprise, the Council reversed their decision and needless to say the Harrogate Advertiser did not publish the letter.
Harrogate will do all it can to welcome refugees
The Advertiser reported………………
Harrogate will do all it can to help refugees, Harrogate Council has said as hundreds of residents have signed a petition to welcome refugees in the town.
The council had been criticised for a decision made in April not to offer assistance in resettling vulnerable Syrian refugees.
It was further reported……………..
Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Coun Mike Chambers (Con, Ripon Spa) said: “With the best will in the world we couldn’t take on these incredibly vulnerable victims at that time, we weren’t able to offer the care to suit their very complex needs, it wasn’t simply a case of providing bricks and mortar.”
In recent weeks the UK has reacted in horror at the scale of the migrant crisis and photographs of a drowned three-year-old refugee, Aylan Kurdi, whose body was found washed up on a Greek beach have pushed many to seek to do more to help.
Coun Chambers said: “The situation has moved on immensely, the numbers of people fleeing the conflicts in Syria and Iraq is increasing and clearly we cannot and will not just sit on our hands. We in Harrogate will do all we can to help play our part in resettling refugees.”
Some readers comments.
Positive Change: So 0.01% of Harrogate’s population sign a petition and the councillors go against an earlier decision made in a democratic process to welcome refugees. It worries me that people make these serious and irreversible decision based on what they see in the news, not what they research and learn for themselves. Who knows what the outcomes will be but it’s doubtful that this spending of local council tax payers money will benefit them.
Blackcat10: so where will we put them all? how will we provide them with necessities? who is going to pay for it all?? a refugee is not just for a few weeks….
when we don’t need food banks, charities like Corrina’s amazing café and we have homes for all those that need them, then we can open our arms and welcome them in. our NHS is on its knees, schools cannot cope, it is not like it was back in the 70’s/80’s when the Vietnam refugees came over. we had more to give then, food banks and homelessness was not the huge problem it is now. the UK is not the country of milk and honey it once was
Harrogate Boy: Perhaps we ought to start thinking about the “large waiting list” of our own residents and the impact of offering relief to migrants on our own finances and prospects for our own people and ratepayers. As far as Alyan is concerned, yes it was sad. However, where was he fleeing from – Turkey – and how long had his family been there – 3 years – and who was the only person wearing a life jacket – his Father.
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( Party Official ) Although I do not KNOW this , I feel sure that this petition was arranged by the Liberal Party. Certainly it is a product of people with a no standards liberal type of attitude to life , that has done much to harm our society. They do not care about anything or anyone , just their twisted way of looking at things. The plight of the poor in the area , let alone the homeless , is not in their minds. It was all a secret campaign and NOT a spontaneous reaction from citizens that they WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE !
I remember the welcome at Berlin for the first arrivals in the current batch. They even had welcome packages for them .
Where are they now.
If the 800 that signed a petition are real ,I suspect not , a bit like postal voting. Then its needs to be published. The BNP membership was, and that was private . Petitions by their nature should be public record.
But its all yesterdays news. The Paris slaughter changes everything. I’m sure the left are seething, because now everyone and their dog. have now misgivings, to say the very least. Including many of that 800.
They wouldn’t print it because sums everything up. All these people are going to require accommodation and benefits. How many can even speak English ?
I’m a part time carer for my father. If he goes into a home, I would have to put his house on the market, to cover the extortionate care fees. So a native Briton in his mid eighties who was always a hard worker, is faced with losing his home to pay for sub standard care homes, and yet all the while newcomers are overwhelmingly accomodated in social housing ? It just is sickening.
Breitbart
‘On the same day, Asa Romson, deputy Prime Minister of Sweden broke down in tears at a press conference while announcing an end to Sweden’s open door asylum policy.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told the assembled reporters: “The situation is untenable.’
Stark raving bonkers!