Monday, April 08, 2019

Threat to Life: Declan writes to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan about the blockade across London on his volunteer applications notwithstanding his support from the Mayor-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 19/6/2019)

From the update below:

"This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!"
-Don Collins, President of ISAF, an NGO dedicated to helping women

Our Church and State website has no less than 57 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan


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. It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that both Declan and I can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination and intimidation we routinely face. 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. This morning Declan has updated the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman with this email to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan about the blockade across London on his volunteer applications notwithstanding his support from St Mungo's TST, and the threat to life posed by the blockade itself.

For the attention of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Case ID: 18011204)

Rt Hon Sadiq Khan
Mayor of London
City Hall

Address removed for email


8 April 2019

Dear Mr Mayor,

I am writing to you as someone who is housed in a Peabody flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Alongside my and my wife's tenancy is access to the Mayor's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) at St Mungo's. We have been twice forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost four years in total from November 2006 to July 2009 and from April 2013 to May 2014. Since February 2014, we both have been part-time employed through funding from America by Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), which I established as a non-profit company limited by guarantee in 2011. N4CM recognises the importance of secular government. There are 211 distinguished academics and other intellectuals listed as Honorary Associates of N4CM, including 15 Nobel Laureates and eight knighted professors. Additionally, there are no less than 56 Nobels Laureates on N4CM’s highly reputable news website Church and State: www.churchandstate.org.uk. Nonetheless, we are currently facing the prospect of a life-and-death struggle to stave off eviction from our home.

It was only in January of this year that St Mungo's took me to the brink of filing a claim for discrimination in the Central London County Court. For over eight months previous, I had been battling St Mungo's to stabilise our tenancy. First it was serious problems with our 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 I discovered that notes St Mungo's had assured the Court the year previous had been rectified by them were in fact being held under my wife's name. Then in January of this year, I discovered that outrageous communication notes were being held without my knowledge or consent since immediately before our tenancy review last May. These and other matters, such as enforced joint visits, have been resolved. But supporting emails from St Mungo's TST to learning disability organisations for voluntary roles for me 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, I can now make a clear-cut case in this regard in relation to five London boroughs: Newham, Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Camden and Hackney. And this notwithstanding that I have been provided with a high-quality written reference from a professional referee to be used for this specific purpose. Please see this reference below.

There has been, indeed, a longstanding blockade on any sort of meaningful voluntary work for me. For over two years, I fought without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham Leisure Trust. I have made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council in this regard, culminating in my relatively 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. I applied to Active Newham in 2016 to befriend an older or isolated person in my community. My 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 my local councillor addressed to senior management in the leisure trust. In 2018, I twice applied to Active Newham to volunteer at my 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 I applied the second time in October 2018, I had been cleared by the police to work with children (enhanced DBS checked) and had become an accredited UK Athletics assistant coach to supplement my 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 me on 28 October 2018 rendering my application null and void by stating that the volunteering opportunity they were advertising through Active Newham was "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 my dealings with Active Newham and associated organisations within the London Borough of Newham.

It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that both my wife and I can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination and intimidation we routinely face. We are extremely concerned that next year we will be left with a destabilising periodic (as opposed fixed term) tenancy by Peabody, as we were last year, but that this time I will actually be forced to issue court proceedings against St Mungo's as being morally and legally responsible. This notwithstanding that I 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 my wife and I need ongoing tenancy sustainment support. It has been acknowledged by St Mungo's TST in a letter to Active Newham that in respect of voluntary work my current position "will impact on the sustainment" of our tenancy in the long term. 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) I have a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both I and my wife doubt I have the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. I am in my late fifties (58) and during our first period of homelessness I was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of our second period of homelessness in April 2014, I was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection.

(ii) Back on the streets we will be restricted to sleeping on night buses notwithstanding my asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease (i.e., in the best-case scenario of money permitting). We 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 us out of where we had been sleeping. This included my wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (City of London Police PSD reference: CO/0021/14). 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 my wife and I have serious concerns about the health care I have or have not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to my hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, I lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had my wife not been with me. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged me 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing me at risk. I most recently complained in January 2018 to NHS England about emergency dental treatment I received. I complained that I 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 my complaint.

I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse.

Yours sincerely,

Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring

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.


UPDATE 19 June (7.35pm): Declan received a reply on behalf of the Mayor of London to the email above from David, who described himself as "part of the Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall with responsibilities for the Mayor's rough sleeping services". This David did not provide his surname and his only contact detail is the Mayor's at mayor@london.gov.uk. He basically ignored everything Declan had to say above and, without authority or consent, attempted to involve our landlord, Peabody Housing Association, in a serious legal dispute between Declan and St Mungo's; see my post this evening, Greater London Authority: The Mayor of London's Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall breach Declan's rights by contacting St Mungo's on his behalf without his authority or consent (WITH UPDATE 19/6/2019). The post contains Declan's stage 1 complaint to the GLA. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman service has informed Declan that the Authority has three months to respond before they will look into anything. On 5 June I posted St Mungo's: Declan's email to CEO Howard Sinclair of this Mayor of London-commissioned charity further to pre-action letter dated 26 April 2019 (WITH UPDATE 19/6/2019). The update to this post reveals that five days after Declan's pre-action letter, on 1 May, St Mungo's once again inputted outrageous notes into their system without his knowledge or consent. It also quotes Don Collins, President of the Washington DC-based International Services Assistance Fund, who observed: "This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!" The notes were only removed by this Mayor of London-commissioned charity last Friday, and the notes below that were agreed upon last April updated on their system.

Declan taught PE in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools.

Declan fought St Mungo's for four months over case notes. Among a whole host of other problems, the last two action notes relating to learning disability volunteering were missing from a barely legible image attachment of notes that Declan received on 1 May (see para. 9 of Particulars of Claim here).

18 February 2019[1]
Met with Declan at his home today at 3pm on 18 February. On 1 February Declan and TST North came to an agreement regarding support going forward. Marc: Send supporting email to Sense.

6 March 2019[2]
Marc: Supporting email sent to Sense.

15 March 2019[3]
Met with Declan at his home today at 3.30pm on 15 March. Meeting following Declan's interview with Sense on 7 March. Marc: Enhanced supporting email sent to KEEN London containing up-front reference to Declan's former homelessness.

22 March 2019[4]
Marc: Contacted KEEN London. Volunteer coordinator is due to return next week and shall contact regarding supporting email.

2 April 2019[5]
Marc: Contacted KEEN London. Spoke with volunteer coordinator and waiting for application to be forwarded.

____________________________
1-3 These three notes were agreed upon during said meeting of 15 March 2019.
4-5 The wording of these latter two action notes was agreed upon by email on 17 April 2019.

Don Collins is also Declan's professional referee. Below is Don's reference dated 8 September 2018. It is somewhat understated, in that our Church and State website now has 57 Nobel Laureates on it, as well as a distinguished list of 232 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 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



From My Picks:

22 April: Email interception: Immediately after this complaint to our local MP a test email to two close colleagues has been blocked. A 2010 parliamentary letter to now Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 19/6/2019)


UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

'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/

at 11:59 am