Threat to life: Declan brings the blockade across London on his volunteer applications to the attention of the Mayor of London
Our Church and State website has no less than 56 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice
Declan and I are housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Alongside our tenancy is access to the Mayor's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) at St Mungo's. Supporting emails from St Mungo's TST for meaningful voluntary roles for Declan that require no specialist skills or experience have been, and continue to be, simply ignored in one way or another by the recipients in and out of the London Borough of Newham in which we live. In fact, we can now make a clear-cut case in this regard in relation to five London boroughs: Newham, Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Camden and Hackney. Earlier today we worked this blockade into Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations that we are currently working on under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Only this January, as revealed in paragraph 36 below, St Mungo's took Declan to the brink of filing a claim for discrimination in the Central London County Court; see my post of 27 January, Particulars of Claim: Declan is forced to issue court proceedings against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's without further notice (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019). On Monday Declan will bring the blockade across London on his volunteer applications to the attention of the Mayor of London, such is the threat to life posed by it.
In re threat to life
Paragraphs 36-38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
36. The Applicant and his wife's tenancy agreement was renewed again last year. They, however, are convinced that if they were not housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative, they would have long been given notice to vacate. It was only in January of this year that St. Mungo's took the Applicant to the brink of filing a claim for discrimination in the Central London County Court (see Annex 16, pp. 39-42). For over eight months previous, the Applicant had been battling St. Mungo's to stabilise his and his wife's tenancy. First it was serious problems with their renewed tenancy agreement, for which St. Mungo's was morally and legally liable, and which took over two months to resolve. For over two months from late June 2018, it was problems with inaccurate case notes, which got even more serious on 1 August 2018 when the Applicant discovered that notes St. Mungo's had assured the Court the year previous had been rectified by them were in fact being held under the Applicant's wife's name. Then in January of this year, the Applicant discovered that outrageous communication notes were being held without his knowledge or consent since immediately before his and his wife's tenancy review last May. These and other matters, such as enforced joint visits, have been resolved. But supporting emails from St. Mungo's to learning disability organisations for voluntary roles for the Applicant that require no specialist skills or experience have been, and continue to be, simply ignored in one way or another by the recipients in and out of the London Borough of Newham in which the Applicant lives. And this notwithstanding that the Applicant has been provided with a high-quality written reference from a professional referee to be used for this specific purpose (see Annex 17, p. 43).
37. There has been, indeed, a longstanding blockade on any sort of meaningful voluntary work for the Applicant. For over two years, the Applicant fought without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham Leisure Trust. He has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council in this regard, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204). Applications for long-term voluntary work with Active Newham have either been ignored/dismissed or rendered null and void. The Applicant applied to Active Newham in 2016 to befriend an older or isolated person in his community. His application was supported by a written recommendation from a retired physician who received his MD from Harvard Medical School. This application was and remains ignored/dismissed by Active Newham notwithstanding repeated support from the Applicant's local councillor addressed to senior management in the leisure trust. In 2018, the Applicant twice applied to Active Newham to volunteer at his local Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club. The Beagles is located near London's Olympic Park and is one of the top premier athletics clubs in the UK. Before the Applicant applied the second time in October 2018, he had been cleared by the police to work with children (enhanced DBS checked) and had become an accredited UK Athletics assistant coach to supplement his former work experience, inter alia, as a physical education teacher in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools. The Beagles' club secretary wrote to the Applicant on 28 October 2018, stating that the volunteering opportunity they were advertising through Active Newham "is incorrect and out of date" and that they were only looking for "qualified Coaches with specific specialisms". These two examples of befriending and the Beagles are by no means exhaustive when it comes to the Applicant's dealings with Active Newham and associated organisations within the London Borough of Newham.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in court papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination and intimidation they routinely face. The Applicant and his wife are extremely concerned that next year they will be left with a destabilising periodic (as opposed fixed term) tenancy by Peabody, as they were last year, but that this time the Applicant will actually be forced to issue court proceedings against St. Mungo's as morally and legally responsible (see para. 36 above). This notwithstanding that the Applicant cannot secure anywhere in London a meaningful long-term volunteer position that does not require any specialist skills or experience; and that it is perfectly clear from this blockade that both he and his wife need ongoing tenancy sustainment support. It has been acknowledged by St. Mungo's in a letter to Active Newham that in respect of voluntary work the Applicant's current position "will impact on the sustainment of Mr Heavey's tenancy in the long term" (see para. 37 above). As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and wellbeing in this case considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties (58) and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, he was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by the police to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to unlawful measures.
(iii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained in January 2018 to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received. He complained that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the tooth had erupted within days, the tooth itself being extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint.
Paragraphs 36-38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
36. The Applicant and his wife's tenancy agreement was renewed again last year. They, however, are convinced that if they were not housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative, they would have long been given notice to vacate. It was only in January of this year that St. Mungo's took the Applicant to the brink of filing a claim for discrimination in the Central London County Court (see Annex 16, pp. 39-42). For over eight months previous, the Applicant had been battling St. Mungo's to stabilise his and his wife's tenancy. First it was serious problems with their renewed tenancy agreement, for which St. Mungo's was morally and legally liable, and which took over two months to resolve. For over two months from late June 2018, it was problems with inaccurate case notes, which got even more serious on 1 August 2018 when the Applicant discovered that notes St. Mungo's had assured the Court the year previous had been rectified by them were in fact being held under the Applicant's wife's name. Then in January of this year, the Applicant discovered that outrageous communication notes were being held without his knowledge or consent since immediately before his and his wife's tenancy review last May. These and other matters, such as enforced joint visits, have been resolved. But supporting emails from St. Mungo's to learning disability organisations for voluntary roles for the Applicant that require no specialist skills or experience have been, and continue to be, simply ignored in one way or another by the recipients in and out of the London Borough of Newham in which the Applicant lives. And this notwithstanding that the Applicant has been provided with a high-quality written reference from a professional referee to be used for this specific purpose (see Annex 17, p. 43).
37. There has been, indeed, a longstanding blockade on any sort of meaningful voluntary work for the Applicant. For over two years, the Applicant fought without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham Leisure Trust. He has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council in this regard, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204). Applications for long-term voluntary work with Active Newham have either been ignored/dismissed or rendered null and void. The Applicant applied to Active Newham in 2016 to befriend an older or isolated person in his community. His application was supported by a written recommendation from a retired physician who received his MD from Harvard Medical School. This application was and remains ignored/dismissed by Active Newham notwithstanding repeated support from the Applicant's local councillor addressed to senior management in the leisure trust. In 2018, the Applicant twice applied to Active Newham to volunteer at his local Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club. The Beagles is located near London's Olympic Park and is one of the top premier athletics clubs in the UK. Before the Applicant applied the second time in October 2018, he had been cleared by the police to work with children (enhanced DBS checked) and had become an accredited UK Athletics assistant coach to supplement his former work experience, inter alia, as a physical education teacher in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools. The Beagles' club secretary wrote to the Applicant on 28 October 2018, stating that the volunteering opportunity they were advertising through Active Newham "is incorrect and out of date" and that they were only looking for "qualified Coaches with specific specialisms". These two examples of befriending and the Beagles are by no means exhaustive when it comes to the Applicant's dealings with Active Newham and associated organisations within the London Borough of Newham.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in court papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination and intimidation they routinely face. The Applicant and his wife are extremely concerned that next year they will be left with a destabilising periodic (as opposed fixed term) tenancy by Peabody, as they were last year, but that this time the Applicant will actually be forced to issue court proceedings against St. Mungo's as morally and legally responsible (see para. 36 above). This notwithstanding that the Applicant cannot secure anywhere in London a meaningful long-term volunteer position that does not require any specialist skills or experience; and that it is perfectly clear from this blockade that both he and his wife need ongoing tenancy sustainment support. It has been acknowledged by St. Mungo's in a letter to Active Newham that in respect of voluntary work the Applicant's current position "will impact on the sustainment of Mr Heavey's tenancy in the long term" (see para. 37 above). As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and wellbeing in this case considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties (58) and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, he was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by the police to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to unlawful measures.
(iii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained in January 2018 to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received. He complained that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the tooth had erupted within days, the tooth itself being extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint.
Below is an understated reference from Declan's professional referee dated 8 September 2018. Our Church and State website now has 56 Nobel Laureates on it, as well as a distinguished list of 211 Honorary Associates that includes 15 Nobel Laureates and eight knighted professors. (These figures were lower last September when, for example, we had two Nobel Laureates listed as Honorary Associates.)
Donald A.Collins, President
International Services Assistance Fund
5620 Oregon Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20015
[information withheld]
FAX [number withheld]
eMail [address withheld]
September 8, 2018
To Whom It May Concern:
I have become aware that my colleague, Declan Heavey, a highly educated professional, has come to need a reference for Newham Council (Active Newham) to find him voluntary work within Newham with children and adults with learning disabilities in a sport setting.
Declan's credentials for this sort of voluntary work are impressive. He is an accredited UK Athletics assistant coach with a DBS certificate for such a voluntary position. He is also a former physical education teacher, who has taught in one of Ireland's top schools (Glenstal Abbey) and set up and ran an unprecedented national network of 26 summer schools called Adventure Ireland that catered for over 4,000 children aged 6-14.
I have read with interest a Republic of Ireland newspaper article about Adventure Ireland that speaks of an admirable 'reconciliation scheme' for the involvement of a large number of children from Northern Ireland. Under this scheme, southern locations catered for children from Northern Ireland accompanied by experienced youth workers known by the children themselves. I understand and have no doubt that this scheme attracted considerable local media coverage both sides of the border between the two countries.
Declan manages an extensive website to which many contribute significant articles that bear on the general welfare of people everywhere. The site gets hundreds of thousands of hits and is a favorite of mine and many Nobelists. In fact, the site has no less than 40 Nobelists on it, as well as a distinguished list of 183 Honorary Associates to date that includes 2 Nobelists and 7 academics with knighthoods under the British royal honors system.
I have met Declan and known him for more than 7 years and I can attest to his strength of character. He is an outstanding and active citizen with a great commitment to community. He is highly responsible, loyal and trustworthy, and has exceptional organisational and management skills. I am pleased to report that my association with him has convinced me that he would provide a worthy addition to serving children and adults with learning disabilities in a sport setting.
Should you wish for more information from me, kindly email me at this address.
Sincerely,
Donald A. Collins
Last May St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed, it left Declan gob smacked. He subsequently spoke with Diane Taylor, the journalist covering the story for the Guardian.
EU freedom for rough sleepers infringed - shock horror. https://t.co/RuJKrSEiTm
— Andrew Martin (@devonprof) May 14, 2018
From My Picks:
4 January: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/
