Church and State blog: Will Declan have to fight the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST for the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council?

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Will Declan have to fight the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST for the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council?

Declan taught PE in one of Ireland's top schools (Glenstal Abbey) and recently acquired a UK Athletics coaching licence. He is also Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) cleared to work with children and adults.

"UPDATE 2 November (5.12pm): This evening the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST agreed to ensuring that the following information will be uploaded verbatim to their organisation's information system: '... For over two years, Declan has been fighting without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham. Declan has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).'"

1 November 2018: UK Athletics: The club secretary for Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club tells Declan that the volunteering opportunity he has seen on Newham Council's Active Newham bulletin is incorrect and out of date (WITH UPDATE 2/11/2018)

This evening the internet connection on my primary laptop has dropped to 4Mb and I can barely open a page; see my previous blog post of 7 November, My laptop has been targeted since 2 November. We pay British Telecom £850 per year for broadband (WITH UPDATE - DAY 13 14/11/2018). Immediately before this drop from 7Mb to 4Mb (we usually have an internet connection of over 70Mb across four laptops), Declan emailed the Mayor of London's St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST). He does not know if he will have to revert to data protection law to ensure the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council that has culminated in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).

14 November 2018

Dear Marc,

Can you please tell me whether or not the agreed upon notes below from our first meeting on 30 October have been uploaded to your organisation's information system?

Best regards,

Declan Heavey

On 2 November the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST agreed to ensuring that the following information will be uploaded verbatim to their organisation's information system:

Declan has a part-time job as an employee of Network for Church Monitoring. This is his main job. He is a former PE teacher and now holds a valid UK Athletics coaching licence with associated DBS. He wants a second part-time job with children, having given up on care work.

For over two years, Declan has been fighting without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham. Declan has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).

For the last two months, Declan has been doing one-off events with Active Newham with a view to securing a long-term volunteer position working with children. He is scheduled to participate in his fifth one-off event with Active Newham on Saturday, 3 November.

Declan has requested a copy of the action notes from our meetings in the form of a download from the organisation's information system.

Declan has requested my support to elicit concrete information from the Bromley by Bow Centre with respect to their next Para-Legacy Agents 12-15 week training course.

Actions:

By Friday, 2 November 2018 Marc (TST Caseworker) to contact Declan about emailing the Bromley by Bow Centre.

Declan to continue with his one-off events with Active Newham.

Ombudsman Case ID: 18011204

1. What do you think the body did wrong?

On 11 September 2018, I lodged a Stage 1 complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council. Head of Customer Services Ron Springer has ignored my complaint against the Council, referring it instead to another party.

On 27 September 2018, I wrote to Mr Springer (cc'd to his CEO) requesting the Council's final response letter within 14 days. I made clear in this correspondence that the fault complained of lies with Newham Council not another party but have received nothing back from the Council.

I believe that Mr Springer's failure to provide me with a final response letter in a timely manner constitutes a clear breach of the Council's complaint handling protocol and procedures.

2. How has this affected you?

Newham Council has referred my complaint to Active Newham. I have tried to get a resolution to my complaint from this party but to no avail. I have suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council.

I am currently housed within a Clearing House property, which is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. The initiative is designed to prevent rough sleeping, sustain tenancies and work with former rough sleepers to greater independence.

Access and support into voluntary roles is a common and successful route for many Clearing House clients to gain access into paid work, gaining valuable experience and improving or maintaining self-esteem; whilst also building valuable links and contribution to their local community.

For over two years, as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I have been effectively barred from being able to work/volunteer on a long-term basis with any of the organisations associated with Active Newham within the London Borough of Newham. Such a decision will have an impact on me being further independent and will impact on the sustainment of my tenancy in the long term, thereby posing a threat to life. (I am an asthmatic with a history of bronchitis and pneumonia.)

In light of the above, and the serious distress caused as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I hereby request the assistance of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

3. What do you think the body should do to put things right?

Newham Council should issue a final response letter that explains their final decision to refer the matter to another party and details my rights to refer the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if I wish.

Declan Heavey
18 October 2018

http://churchandstate.org.uk/honorary-associates/

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Will Declan have to fight the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST for the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council?

About me

My Picks

Church and State

Blog Archive