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Stafford shops closing - Turning into a ghost town?
- Thread starter Goldstyle Limousines
- Start date
gon2seed
(and me! - Ed)
As I said it was 30 odd years ago, and it was in Rochdale! I am still in touch with my old employers, this was a large, very much local charity serving the Greater Manchester town. I moved home 26 years ago, was a Firefighter for 13 years. I know the Eagle House, by the station is a homeless hostel, but in my experience seasoned rough sleepers are often wary of hostels and authority in general. I have no contact with The House of Bread and know nothing about them. If I was looking for help with a particular question regarding homelessness I would start there! I think the local council have a statutory obligation for homeless issues. They certainly should know the local situation, and know who to contact. I am not a christian, but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the work I believe they do with the homeless in Stafford. They may know the people to contact, (Themselves?)
Sorry I could help no further. In Rochdale we had ran a large Day Centre, that served free bread and soup every day, cheap main meals, ran a free clothes store and offered free confidential advise on related matters. We had contacts with the local council and liaised with them when trying to get people tenancies. Rochdale roughly the same size as Stafford. The Day Centre open 6 days a week, would be accessed by up to 200 people, but it was open to anyone, and had no way of knowing how many people were actually 'homeless'. It's safe to say you wouldn't enter the place unless you were in need! We were well known in the town and people were referred by individuals and agencies. As well as the Day Centre, we ran a 10 bed hostel, two supported 'move on' short stay 6 bed houses, supported bed sits, and, as I said, worked with the Council to get people their own tenancy, then furnish it, and to maintain that tenancy.
I must say I am shocked with the amount of rough sleepers I see in Stafford. VERY shocked!
Last edited:
littleme
250,000th poster!
I was only hoping someone might see the message and help, however it seems that today the tent is gone, not sure of they've been moved on or if they've found better circumstances, hope things are looking up for them, I shall miss the smell of frying bacon on a Sunday morning too.
gon2seed
(and me! - Ed)
There was a small tent just off the Isabel Line among the trees and bushes a year ago. It was there quite a while, just next to the boundary fence of one of the pf one of the Sandon Rd houses. back gardens. I may be being over imaginative, but I always assumed it was someones abode, though I never saw anyone there! It disappeared a while ago!
PeterD
ST16 Represent.
I saw it last year, then as you say it disappeared
staffordjas
Well-Known Forumite
I'm wary of the council knowing of the location of anyone having a tent pitched.
My brother works for the council. I remember him a few years ago saying he was mortified that his bosses had suddenly given instructions to dispose of any rough sleepers belongings if left unattended.
He's built up a good relationship with lots of the Stafford homeless over the years , and was saying how shit it was that he was expected to dispose of the little belongings they possessed.
proactive
Enjoying a drop of red.
How can that even be legal, never mind morally acceptable?I'm wary of the council knowing of the location of anyone having a tent pitched.
My brother works for the council. I remember him a few years ago saying he was mortified that his bosses had suddenly given instructions to dispose of any rough sleepers belongings if left unattended.
He's built up a good relationship with lots of the Stafford homeless over the years , and was saying how shit it was that he was expected to dispose of the little belongings they possessed.
staffordjas
Well-Known Forumite
I know , he goes out of his way to help them. Hoping all the rest of the workers given those instructions were good enough to turn a blind eye...
There was the incident of the rough sleepers in the bike shelter outside B& Q as well. They were really friendly , harming no- one being pitched up in their tent under there , and always had a nice chat as I passed. Then one day some shit- head official decided they and the shelter had to be removed, so they came back to their possessions to find them soaking wet after torrential rain.
Must have been them pitched up on grass , out of the way, behind Lloyds Bank soon after. Doing no-one any harm , in a place no- one hardly passed , yet soon disappeared from there as well.
There was the incident of the rough sleepers in the bike shelter outside B& Q as well. They were really friendly , harming no- one being pitched up in their tent under there , and always had a nice chat as I passed. Then one day some shit- head official decided they and the shelter had to be removed, so they came back to their possessions to find them soaking wet after torrential rain.
Must have been them pitched up on grass , out of the way, behind Lloyds Bank soon after. Doing no-one any harm , in a place no- one hardly passed , yet soon disappeared from there as well.
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
I noticed a 'To Let' sign on the TK Maxx carpark yesterday on my way to the Dr's. Wasn't paying full attention but 3500 sq ft or something was on the board. Please can someone advise whether one of the only decent shops we've got is closing? I genuinely get everything I need in TK Maxx, would be gutted if we lost that store.
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
There's no way on earth tkmaxx is 3500sq ft...
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
I have no idea what 3500 sq ft or metres looks like?
The Hawk
Well-Known Forumite
Reminds me of when they closed the main shopping street to traffic as part of the pedestrianisation of the town. Notices were put up on the bus stops, in Greengate Street, to advise passengers where their nearest bus stop had been moved to. Someone with a Sharpie type pen had added an extra couple of strokes to the second 'L' IN 'WALLS', so the notices now read:I remember when @gdavies left the Maplin shop. I popped in there to see him and was told, I thought, "He's gone to the Bath store". For some months, I thought this was quite an extreme commute, until I happened to spot the Bathstore shop one day...
'NEAREST BUS STOP IS NOW IN SOUTH WALES'.
Mind you the way our bus services are being cut, that might yet become true.
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
The year was 1993 and I was sat at a bus stop at Ayres Rock waiting for the coach to take me to Alice Springs. I got chatting to another backpacker and asked where he was from.
"Perth" came the response.
"Oh right" I said, "I traveled through there with the parents a few years so on the way to Inverness and the Isle of Skye...."
#fail
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
In Ireland, the people across the road asked my father to keep an eye on the house for a week, whilst they were away. On being asked where they were going, they told him they were flying to Venice in the morning. He made it fairly plain that he thought that this was a great extravagance and it would be lot more sensible to just go on the train. It was some time later, when being shown a few pictures of the trip, that it became clear that he thought they were going to Ennis, about five stops down the track from the local railway station.
The Hawk
Well-Known Forumite
Went to the Alice in 1992. called in at the rock as well.
" I have sat here day after day this winter, sleeping a good deal in my chair, hardly knowing if I was in London or the Gulf country, dreaming of the blazing sunshine, of poddy-dodging and black stockmen, of Cairns and of Green Island. Of a girl that I met forty years too late, and of her life in that small town that I shall never see again, that holds so much of my affection."
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
His autobiography, Slide Rule, is worthy of a read, too.
Cue
Well-Known Forumite
You'd be surprised, especially with the mezzanine. Severn House on Anson Court is about 3,300 without the front area