Call for Public Enquiry

This is a Barnet residents led campaign to protest the closure of Apthorp Care Centre in Barnet and to address the issue of ongoing public sector cuts, service mismanagement and lack of meaningful community consultation, by calling for a public enquiry.

There is too much secrecy and a clear prioritisation of big business profits over the needs and concerns of residents and workers within the borough. We want private interests kept well away from our public services, for which we pay via council tax!

Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) is working alongside Barnet Unison and other Barnet organisations and residents, to challenge what is happening at Apthorp. It’s closure has had a devastating affect on the lives of elderly, vulnerable clients and their families and resulted in the redundancies of 93 precious care sector workers.

It has recently come to light that 5 of the clients who were moved have subsequently died.  This is devastating news and absolutely cements our demand for a public enquiry.

This is the latest scandal in a long history of attacks on public services in Barnet and as this campaign launches, news spreads of other publicly used services and buildings being sold off to private developers.  These include the planned Hendon Hub development, the selling off of The Arts Depot and North Finchley Library and more.

Despite reaching out to councillors and our MP, we have been given insufficient responses and 'copy and paste' answers to our questions.  Stating that a 16 year old building was 'not fit for purpose' immediately rings alarm bells and no one seems to want to take responsibility for errors in safety checks and the rushed way in which this closure took place.

We demand a public enquiry!

1. We demand answers to our list of questions about the closure of Apthorp Care Centre, including why is it being closed, why was it left to decline, why can it not be saved, why were clients and staff not centred in the process, will it reopen and when and why was this all done so quickly?
2. We demand a public statement guaranteeing meaningful consultation and engagement with local communities about any future public service provision changes or regeneration proposals
3. We demand fair pay, conditions and the just treatment of all public sector workers according to their unions
4. We demand transparency about the ownership of buildings and land within the borough and about the use of public money in relation to their upkeep
   

Please sign this petition to endorse these demands and help send a clear message to Barnet Council, that we will NOT sit by and watch as our public services are torn apart in the name of propping up private property developers and corporate interests.

People's lives are directly affected by decisions made by the council. In particular we note the well known fact, that causing disruption such as moving elderly and confused people away from familiar people and surroundings, is not only cruel, but can lead to premature death. We fear this may well be the case at Apthorp.

We also note that there is currently a shortage of Social Care staff in the UK and so treating some of the most valuable workers we have in this way, is absolutely outrageous. These workers were on the frontline throughout the pandemic and are 3 times more at risk of dying from COVID19. The LEAST they deserve is decent pay, conditions and security in their jobs.