Pensioners' fury over "unequal" pay outs

3:00pm Monday 24th December 2012 in News By Wendy Brading

PENSIONERS claim they have been betrayed by Colchester Council after it agreed extra payments to some residents and not others being moved out of their sheltered homes.


Residents had to leave Abbeygate House and Joyce Brooks House sheltered housing schemes when the council revealed it was selling them off.


The council said they were not fit for purpose and would use money to improve other sheltered housing complexes in the borough.
 

However, nine residents from Joyce Brooks House vehemently opposed the move and collected a petition of more than 4,000 names and also issued a judicial review at the High Court in London.


Finally, after a year of fighting, they agreed to move to new homes.
 

But now a new row has broken out after former tenants of Abbeygate House found out some residents from Joyce Brooks House had negotiated new settlements.

Comments(7)

theequaliser1 says...
3:33pm Mon 24 Dec 12

usual state of play with the ali ba ba brigade at rowan house. they tried to do the same to my mum in other circumstances and she got well and truly shafted in the process. they always have a sound bite and an excuse bewarned all that glitters with them is not golden?

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theequaliser1 says...
3:33pm Mon 24 Dec 12

usual state of play with the ali ba ba brigade at rowan house. they tried to do the same to my mum in other circumstances and she got well and truly shafted in the process. they always have a sound bite and an excuse bewarned all that glitters with them is not golden?

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Boris says...
6:03pm Mon 24 Dec 12

When Joyce Brooks House tenants started their petition, over a year ago, they invited the Abbeygate tenants to join them, but there were no takers. Joyce Brooks House residents, assisted by Colchester Against The Cuts, stood out in the street every Saturday during the winter and early spring, often in freezing cold, collecting signatures for their own petition, and then for another petition to defend the rest of the sheltered housing in the town.
One of them, Bobby Hunt, stood for election to the council. He was unsuccessful, but he and many others put a lot of effort into that campaign.
A solicitor specialised in such cases won a judicial review for the Joyce Brooks House tenants, and this led directly to an improved offer. The solicitor advised her clients to accept this offer, and they did.
If the Abbeygate House tenants had been willing to make sacrifices like those at Joyce Brooks House, they could have had the same solicitor negotiate the same deal for them. But they chose not to fight, and to accept what they were offered.
The lesson for all of us is that if someone wants to do you an injustice, you fight it, you don't just roll over and accept it the way the people did at Abbeygate House.

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Feisty CBC says...
9:20pm Mon 24 Dec 12

It's a bit akin to non strikers expecting the same wage settlements negotiated by the union.

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Boris says...
10:04pm Mon 24 Dec 12

Feisty CBC wrote:
It's a bit akin to non strikers expecting the same wage settlements negotiated by the union.
Exactly so.
.
Happy Christmas, Feisty.

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Say It As It Is OK? says...
10:59pm Mon 24 Dec 12

Tend to agree with Boris and good luck to the Joyce Brooks residents, but this is different to many a union dispute. Some unions in the Seventies thought they had all the power, now they don't.

I was working for United Biscuits in 1975 when a group of 45 engineers and electricians had a pay dispute and risked the company closing down by employing unreasonable pay demands. If the factory had closed over 1500 production workers and management were at risk of also losing their jobs.

The other unions defied the AEU picket lines to work on and keep the factory open. it was these people that kept the business going and it was they who received the highest pay settlement.

Merry Christmas

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Feisty CBC says...
7:50am Tue 25 Dec 12

Boris wrote:
Feisty CBC wrote:
It's a bit akin to non strikers expecting the same wage settlements negotiated by the union.
Exactly so.
.
Happy Christmas, Feisty.
Merry Christmas to you and yours Boris :)

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