Anything goes

Having endured a torrid month – you can read the draconian measures we were treated to for the whole of August here – we are now witnessing an enthusiastic “anything goes”.

If Declan’s urgent request for expedition of 8 September to the European Court of Human Rights was granted (Declan’s main application of 8 September can be read here), it is not beyond the realms of possibility that things could be resolved in just a few months. For example, the case of Papon v France was expedited by the Court under rule 41 of the Convention because of the advance age and ill-health of the applicant in prison. The case was lodged on 12 January 2001 and on 23 January the Court asked the respondent Government to submit information and comments about the applicant’s conditions and regime.

However, the British government must be too busy at the moment – no time to fix a loophole in the law relating to jobseeker’s allowance either – and so why not take us out instead of having to dilly-dally with a response?

We need not speculate about where we are supposed to be in a month’s time. For example, yesterday afternoon I had just arrived at my pitch (where I sell The Big Issue magazine everyday) when this worker comes along with a ladder and tells me – in as provocative a manner as possible – that I have to leave. With some difficulty I establish that I can come back in ten minutes, which I do, only to find that he has left two ladders behind him on my pitch. I can recognise skulduggery when I see it, so I squeeze myself and my bags inside the small space I’ve got between the two ladders. Of course, I didn’t sell a single magazine and had to leave in the end. Declan also had trouble: the regular London Lite distributor was apparently trying to be as antagonistic as possible, despite Declan’s most recent letter of complaint to the head of The London Paper and also to its owner, Rupert Murdoch. What was the objective? Well, we think that if Declan had said something to him, the London Lite may have put in a complaint to The Big Issue and Declan could have been de-badged. Eventually Declan too walked off his pitch, having sold, well, nothing.

Later on as we were passing the Salvation Army’s men’s hostel on Whitechapel Road – a horrendous building with more than 200 homeless sleeping in it (a non-option for Declan anyway, since his benefit was terminated) – I saw the homeless woman that assaulted me in the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission on 18 June for the first time since that day. I actually didn’t recognise her at all until she and her mates began screaming like they were sitting in a Roman amphitheatre watching a gladiatorial combat. Apparently they were screaming at me. Oops.

Anyway, things today are not improving. For whatever reason Declan didn’t sell any Big Issues this morning – perhaps it didn’t help that some homeless with one of these supermarket trolleys was sleeping on the ground just to one side of him. I only made a few pounds, which means that tomorrow I could very well be starting a new career as an (illegal) beggar.

Whether it’s hunger or cold (this morning at 5.30am we were the only ones walking the street without coats) that will finish us off is anyone’s guess. Oh, Declan was informed by a very high profile humanist yesterday afternoon that he found Declan’s invitation to become an honorary associate of NAC in his spam box. So there: we can’t even reach out for support.

I may as well come straight out with it: I am no fan of religion. In fact, it is my opinion that by the time you are into adulthood you really ought to have mastered your relationship with the outside world to the extent that you don’t pine for soft clichés and fuddy-duddy rules. Nonetheless, yesterday Viennese people, who had congregated outside St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, had the exciting experience of hearing the Pope urging them “to create oases of selfless love in a world where so often only power and wealth seem to count”. No wonder public turn-outs during his three-day visit to Austria were lower than expected.

Sixth visit by the police

Last night – I had just got into my sleeping bag – we received our sixth visit from the police. Declan was informed by two police community support officers that all rough sleepers are to be moved out of the City of London, that we can expect to be “harassed” (her word) by the police over the next two weeks, and that we may be asked to move beyond city boundaries.

The question: is this a (ruthless) method by the London Mayor Ken Livingstone to cleanse the city of rough sleepers? Or is this just the latest idea the police have come up with to move us out of our porch and put us at risk? (I should mention here that on 3 November Declan had good foresight when he chose this particular patch for us to sleep in: it has proven relatively safe and quiet, notwithstanding the sleep deprivation techniques that have been used against us, and which I have recorded throughout this blog.)

I already smell a rat. I have spent an hour on the internet in the library Idea Store Whitechapel and my research has yielded no results. There is not one single mention on the internet of an operation by the police to move rough sleepers out of the City of London or that one is going to be undertaken or has ever been undertaken; the Mayor of London website mentions nothing; other homeless organisations are reporting nothing; and the same applies to all the major papers. Even staff at the Dellow Centre told Declan this morning that they have heard of no such policy.

So if the Bishopsgate City of London police think that we are going to voluntarily move out, and put ourselves and our belongings (including legal documentation) at risk, they are mistaken. For a start, Declan is considering writing to Ken Livingstone on this apparent covert police operation.

And then there is the Independent Police Complaints Commission to write to on the manner in which the assault on him (on 17 February a homeless called Ali punched Declan twice in the face in an unprovoked attack in the Whitechapel Mission) is being dealt with by Tower Hamlets police: Declan cannot get the police to take his statement.

In a nutshell, after much trouble on Declan’s part (recorded in this blog), on 1 March PC Richard Bentley (823 HT) left a message on Declan’s mobile stating that as soon as he has arrested Ali, he will contact Declan again for his written statement of 19 February to be formally taken. (Where, for a start, does it say that the alleged assailant has to be arrested before a statement can be taken from the victim?) Needless to say, PC Bentley has never phoned back.

This morning, Bethnal Green Police Station informed Declan that in fact it is not PC Bentley who is investigating the matter at all, but Detective Constable Alexander Head of the Beat Crime Unit in Limehouse Police Station. According to police records, DC Head wrote to Declan c/o Whitechapel Mission on 26 February and 9 March. The mission, however – and this is hilarious – issued Declan a letter this morning stating no mail has arrived there for him since 20 January.

It’s always something in the Whitechapel Mission

Yesterday morning in the Methodist-run Whitechapel Mission Declan had an encounter with yet another Pole. (Declan and I are having run-ins with homeless Poles of late – a large percentage of the homeless visiting the mission and the Dellow Centre are Poles, which doesn’t help. It was two Poles that laughed me off last week in the laundry room of the Dellow Centre. And it was a Pole who ranted in Polish at Declan in the mission a week ago or so. Declan has also had to deal with Poles in the washroom of both establishments, most recently this morning in the case of the mission.)

Anyway, this time a Pole wanted to use my scarf and Declan's coat as his mattress and if, on his way back from the washroom, Declan hadn't grabbed his coat while it was still in the Pole’s hands – my scarf was already on the floor – that is exactly what he would have done.

It was good that Declan got hold of his coat before the Pole had time to throw it on the floor because after he was punched twice in the face in the mission by a homeless in an unprovoked attack on 17 February – and was informed by the mission manager that staff don't get involved in fights – I can't see how staff would have stepped in on an argument over a coat and scarf.

We, unlike the homeless we encounter every day, cannot get clothes either from the mission or the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre, and have to buy them with money we earn selling The Big Issue. This reminds me that the weather is getting better now and we are going to need to replace all our clothes soon. I am looking forward to that.

It is always something in the Whitechapel Mission. When the women’s shower is not being blocked by a homeless woman who is not even bothering to turn on the water – it happened twice last week, once at 6.10am – some other homeless is insisting that one or other of us talk to him or her. This morning we were one of the first into the mission at 6.00am, only to find that there was a puddle of water beneath the table we usually sit at – there are only three chairs attached, the fourth being broken – which Declan had to soak up with a kitchen cloth. He filled two cups with water which would otherwise have soaked through our bags.

Also this morning, I had company at my pitch outside Liverpool Street Station, where I usually sell The Big Issue. Just in front of me – less than two metres separating us – this guy is propping up a placard under arm, while at the same passing fliers like he is in the military. His instruction was clearly to put me out of business because every time I sold a magazine he would shuffle from one foot to the other, attempting to pass the fliers even more forcefully. He was getting some looks, I can tell you.

I decided right there and then that I would give up my shower and breakfast of a bowl of cereal in the Dellow Centre and go instead to the local City of London Camomile Street Library to type my blog and then save it to my USB Flash Drive for Declan to correct and make the necessary amendments (I am Spanish).

It turned out that the only two computers that accept a flash drive are now out of order – the librarian didn’t know when they would be back working – so I had no choice but to copy and paste the contents of the blog into my webmail. It meant that the police were able to read my blog before Declan. Yes, I am afraid that like many other activists, our email is being monitored by the police. We have even had emails to us sabotaged. But then, what is new?

We are making advancements

Selling The Big Issue in Covent Garden over the weekend is never boring. Yesterday, while I was relieving Declan from our pitch, the vendor who is sharing it with us came along. First he wanted the pitch for himself on weekends – yeah, he already told Declan last week that he wanted the pitch for himself everyday, all day – and then wanted me to take off so he could step in to sell the magazine for the afternoon.

When Declan pointed out that we had precedence over him, the vendor was adamant that he had precedence over me. The vendor eventually took off – “its game on,” he said – after Declan threatened him with a complaint. If the Big Issue runs more pitches like ours, the sales staff at head office must be inundated with vendor complaints – and a few fights, if you ask me.

Last Thursday night PC Richard Bentley left a message on Declan’s mobile – he must be back from his holidays – informing him that Ali was going to be arrested, after which Declan could make his statement. (Ali is the homeless guy that punched Declan twice in the face in an unprovoked attack on 17 February in the Whitechapel Mission.)

PC Bentley hasn’t phoned Declan since, so I assume Ali is giving him the slip. We haven’t seen this Ali or his girlfriend for a few days either. Last week, we were running into them every day – on one occasion, Ali’s girlfriend ran into me in the toilets of the Whitechapel library.

Yesterday morning, as we were about to leave the porch we sleep in at night, a police car stopped by. After we were asked if we were heading off, and were wished a good day, the car drove on. It’s a small advancement, but one of the threats the Bishopsgate City of London police have held over us – namely that we cannot sleep in the porch – would appear now to have been lifted. Of course, we still have to deal with the porch alarm, people invading the porch before we arrive, workers going into the building to do handiwork, and sleep deprivation techniques. Cold, wind and rain (perhaps even more snow) have also to be dealt with, but fortunately for us the police have no control over them.

Second all night alarm in our porch

Well, last night was a replay of the eventful night of the 26th: alarm in our porch already going off when we arrived at 8.30pm; didn’t stop all night; and still going strong when we left at 5.30am.

You wonder how the police get someone in a building of offices, containing more than one business, to blow a porch alarm all night. Who do they get in contact with? Do they come clean about who the two rough sleepers occupying the porch are – church/state matter - or do they lie? Declan and I are lucky we are not a bit browner than average ... they would manufacture some phoney War On Terror “intelligence” and have us raided and arrested.

Detective Constable Alexander Head of the Beat Crime Unit in Limehouse Police Station has yet to phone Declan to arrange a time to take his statement on the assault on him in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February, when he was punched twice in the face by a homeless called Ali in an unprovoked attack. (Two days ago, after Declan had just gone through the gate of the Dellow Centre – I try to avoid the place as much as I can, so I wasn’t there – this Ali called Declan a c*** from the queue outside the gate.)

The police efforts to demoralise us

At the risk of not being believed, I have to report that last night the alarm of the porch we sleep in was going off when we arrived at 9.00pm, didn’t stop the whole night, and was still going when we left at 5.30am. The alarm wasn’t one of these that deafen, perhaps because the sound was coming from the inside hall, but anybody two metres from the porch could hear it – the porch alarm box flashed a blue light.

That is the second time we have arrived to the porch to the sound of the alarm … only this time it went all night.

We also noted that the porch I mentioned in the last blog, which we are going to move to should we have to, was all lit up in a first in four months – to deter us from sleeping in it?

Three nights ago a worker wanted us out of the porch; the night before last two lovers took over our porch for 55 minutes; and last night the never-stopping alarm. It appears this is going to become our new nightly lot. Anyway, it is not like we are not aware that the job of the Bishopsgate City of London police is to harass and demoralise us. (To think that there was a time I chewed over the idea of studying criminology after finishing my degree in Psychology because I wanted to become a top police inspector.)

Declan is still trying to make a formal statement to reflect the typed statement he handed in to Bethnal Green Police Station for the attention of PC Richard Bentley (823 HT). Declan was twice punched in the face by a homeless called Ali in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February. PC Bentley was the police officer who took the details from Declan at the mission – he is on his holidays at the moment.

The following is Declan’s efforts to get the police to take his statement:

Mon 19th	- 9.30pm, 1st visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. Declan hands in typed statement for PC Bentley.
Wed 21st	- 10.00pm, 2nd visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. PC Bentley on his holidays. PC Calabrese of Limehouse Police Station to phone Declan.
Fri 23rd	- 11.30am, 1st phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Declan told to phone back on Monday for PC Calabrese.
Mon 26th	- 6.15am, 2nd phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Declan told to phone back at 7.00am for PC Calabrese. - 7.15am, 3rd phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Declan told to phone control room. - 7.20am, 4th phone call to Limehouse Police Station – Control Room. Declan to be phoned back immediately. (No call.) - 7.25am, 5th phone call to Limehouse Police Station – Control Room. PC Calabrese to phone Declan. - 8.30pm, 1st phone message from Limehouse Police Station. Declan asked to phone DC Head.
Tues 27th	- 7.30am, 6th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Declan told to phone back at 9.00am for DC Head. - 9.00am, 7th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. DC Head to phone Declan.

Will the ruling of a Lord Justice be unnecessary?

This morning Declan called into the Civil Appeals Office in the Royal Courts of Justice. He wanted to know primarily if there was some form he could fill out to expedite the matter of a Lord Justice’s ruling as to whether he can appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to dismiss his claim for judicial review of 24 August against the Department for Work and Pensions. Declan already filed an application for urgent consideration with his claim of 24 August – our situation must not had been deemed urgent enough at the time though. Apparently he can fill out another form that may speed things up.

Since Declan filed his amended appellant’s notice (to include transcript of judgment) in the Civil Appeals Office on 17 January, he has been assaulted twice, most recently last Saturday in the Whitechapel Mission when a homeless guy punched him twice in the face.

Not entirely satisfied with two punches, this homeless – Ali is his name – had a message passed on to Declan on Sunday to the effect that he is going to kill him outside the mission. How nice!

Yesterday morning Declan made a second visit to Bethnal Green Police Station to inquire as to when he can make a formal statement to PC Richard Bentley (823 HT), while I stayed in the mission with all our bags. He was told that PC Bentley, who dealt with Declan the morning of the assault, was on his holidays but that a PC Calabrese from another police station would phone Declan sometime next week with a view to making his written statement of 19 September formal.

When he returned to the mission who was there but Ali himself and his girlfriend. (PC Bentley had told Declan that the manager of the Whitechapel Mission confirmed that Ali had been barred.)

So, with PC Bentley on his holidays, Ali back in the Whitechapel Mission and the slow progress of our claim in the Royal Courts of Justice, perhaps a Lord Justice might not have to rule at all – Appellant deceased so to speak.

Declan is punched twice in the face

This morning in the Whitechapel Mission Declan was punched twice in the face by a homeless guy, while I was taking a shower. We know this homeless well because his girlfriend gets lavished with good clothes and toiletries by both the Whitechapel Mission and the Dellow Centre – in total contrast to me, I might add.

Declan actually took the two punches with his hands down by his side because he knew that if he defended himself, which he was entitled to do, he could very well have been the one arrested by the police. Neither of us is under any illusion that Declan would not have had one single witness – homeless or staff – going with him. It was only after the second punch that the worker standing by made a move to put a stop to it.

When the police arrived this homeless just took off out of the building, but not before taking off his jacket and leaving it behind him. Are some of these homeless used to running off or what?

Declan is of course pressing charges, just in case he is now perceived as a punch bag for any of the homeless that visit the Whitechapel Mission. So, he has to give the police a statement and the police then take it from there. I don’t think this homeless guy has much to be concerned about though.

PC Stephanie Tann (737 FH), who was supposed to phone Declan in relation to the assault on him in a WLCHC rolling shelter, never bothered getting back to him one way or another. How could the WLCHC find that assault an “accident”, if there were not witnesses and the assailant identified?

With some homeless you just can’t win. If you point out that he has sat in your chair – with your coat hung on the back of it and half your belongings underneath – he takes exception to the tone you have taken with him. When you tell him he can have the chair and you attempt to move your belongings, you get punched.

When Declan complained to the manager of the Whitechapel Mission about how long it took the worker to move in his defence, she told him that staff don’t get involved in fights and that people enter the mission at their own risk … wouldn’t it be anarchy if public institutions operated this policy?

I think the Methodist Whitechapel Mission ought to be informed that they owe a common duty of care to visitors to their establishment. This is to ensure that the visitor will be reasonably safe in the premises for the purposes for which he has been invited or permitted.

Will there be a police visit tonight?

Yesterday morning the Whitechapel Mission became the scene of five different fights – all of them in the space of a half an hour. The first was between two women; the second between two Poles. We didn’t see number three, four or five because Declan thought it more appropriate to drink our coffee outside the building. A homeless guy that left the establishment by the back door fed us the news.

The eventful breakfast finished with the arrival of the police – we did see that bit – after apparently somebody got head butted. This morning another fight was averted after one homeless guy manhandled a troublemaker out of the mission, the floor staff happy to remain in the kitchen. The troublemaker later turned up in the Dellow Centre to be promptly shown the front gate by the cook … the Sisters of Mercy don’t tolerate aggressive behaviour even if they themselves are infamous for it.

In relation to the fights that took place yesterday in the Whitechapel Mission, one of the workers who was unable to establish order was in his element when a half an hour earlier he gave me one of the smallest towels he had and a sachet of conditioner instead of the shampoo I asked for.

Anyway, we don’t know if there were more fights in the mission this morning because we left at 7.30am for the Dellow Centre so we could do a laundry. Although the Dellow Centre starts letting people in after 9.15am, if we don’t stand outside their gates well before 8.00am we run the risk there will be no washing machines left … that didn’t happen at the beginning though.

With this arrangement we only do one laundry a week. You would think that one laundry involving one dryer is a pretty straight forward business: you press one button and then another until the clothes are dry. Not in the Dellow Centre. Last Monday, the worker in charge of laundry wanted Declan to take our clothes out of the dryer despite the fact that they were not dry, and when Declan wouldn’t do that we returned to discover that the dryer had been turned off unknown to us … this morning Declan stood beside the dryer the whole time, although the same worker didn’t seem too happy about it.

In relation to me and the Dellow Centre, well it is more or less the usual, except that now I have to also deal with some women that are coming from the women’s hostel down the road from the centre. At 9.15am one of them almost ran over me, she was that desperate to enter the building before me, despite that I had been there for an hour and 15 minutes before her. Then in the women’s toilet, they took turns showering in the only shower available – why would they do that when they have showers available in their hostel? I was actually lucky to sneak a quick shower almost at the last moment. Like the men’s Booth House, this hostel is also run by the Salvation Army for those who are in receipt of benefits, which we are not. But even if it was free, after my experience with some of these women, they would have to bring me in a straightjacket for me to even put my foot in it.

In the past when the Dellow Centre and the Whitechapel Mission were going at us that extra mile it usually meant that the Metropolitan Police would pay us a visit at night – they have visited our patch in Whitechapel four times so far. I mean we are the ideal homeless: we don’t drink or smoke; we leave the porch we sleep in clean; and we leave at 5.30am. What reason have the police to harass us?

Still waiting for a Lord Justice to rule

Well, I have to say that there is nothing I miss from the WLCHC (West London Churches Homeless Concern) rolling shelters: the food was bearably eatable (with the exception of their Monday shelter at the Chelsea Methodist Church); the women’s rooms were of late unheated; homeless were catching scabies off blankets and mats; and the women had to usually share toilets with the men. Then, of course, there were some of the homeless themselves. I wonder if faith-based initiatives can provide anything other than half-baked services.

From now until April, our biggest challenge is going to be the weather - apart from the usual police harassment. It snowed two nights before we had to quit the WLCHC programme on 28 January.

We have bought high quality thermals (top and bottom) for the both of us with money we earned this week selling The Big Issue. Other expenses were two seven-day bus passes (£28), plus food (lunch and dinner, sometimes breakfast). On Friday, the base of my left foot was swollen as result of all the standing around I had been doing. Anyway, if you take out the cold, and people are sauntering, we both enjoy selling The Big Issue.

Covent Garden is where we have been going on weekends – our pitches at Liverpool Street station just die for us on Saturday and Sunday. And up to last weekend we had been getting two pitches in Covent Garden that worked very well for us, while at the same time keeping our bags safe. Not any more. Yesterday, one of the Big Issue coordinators in Covent Garden informed Declan that both pitches are restricted. When Declan asked for two other pitches that have also worked for us, he was informed that one is restricted and someone had just been sent to the other.

Our new pitches turned out to be almost a washout. We didn’t know where to put our bags and passers-by were not buying the magazine. In regard to the bags, the majority of Big Issue vendors – we get on with a number of them, especially in Covent Garden – carry only a small rucksack. The reason is that they are either in temporary accommodation or hostels. But you need benefits for such placement and our claim for unemployment benefit was terminated on 27 September.

On the subject of benefits, Declan lodged his amended appellant’s notice (to include transcript of judgment) in the Civil Appeals Office in the Royal Courts of Justice on 17 January, and still a Lord Justice in the Court of Appeal has to give us the go-ahead to appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to refuse us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Funnily enough, when Declan first lodged his application for judicial review on 24 August, he did so with an application for urgent consideration. I don’t know why they bother providing such an application when it can be so easily disregarded.

Our case certainly casts a shadow on the whole idea of the integrity of the Court, especially when the DWP can so blatantly deny us the right to the internal review process prior to irrationally terminating our claim on 27 September (because Declan did not “sign on” two days before he was due to do so on 29 September), and we are still waiting – having been forced to sleep rough – for the Court to rule on permission to appeal.

Nelson Mandela, in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, writes: “I went from having an idealistic view of the law as a sword of justice to a perception of the law as a tool used by the ruling class to shape society in a way favorable to itself. I never expected justice in court, however much I fought for it, and though I sometimes received it.” I can’t think of anybody more qualified to make such an assessment, so I am happy to go with him.

Scabies and the WLCHC

The director of the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC) Michael Athienites has put a message on Declan’s mobile today to the effect that although he is in and out of his office today he is hoping that Declan and he can talk.

Well, that is nice. Declan is going to be able to further inform him that the same scabies sufferer that scratched his back over Declan on Thursday unceremoniously bedded down next to Declan on Saturday night, with 30 seconds to lights out. He is also going to ask Athienites which of the two instructions the WLCHC homeless were given about two weeks ago should we follow in the event we catch the highly communicable mite: burn all our clothes or boil them.

Understandably, we were not overjoyed when we were given either of these two instructions. Declan (while still recovering from his pneumonia) and I spent most of the holiday period in December and early January selling The Big Issue in Covent Garden so that we could buy the clothes that the Dellow Centre and the Whitechapel Mission haven’t provided us with – but provide the rest of the homeless that attend their respective establishments.

Last night in the Sunday rolling centre at Barnes Methodist Church, Station Road, two of the homeless women I sleep with let me have a piece of their mind, although not in actual words. In the middle of the night, I woke up to find that one had moved her chair - and herself - so close to me that I couldn’t stretch my legs without bumping into the chair. The other woman had done a 40 degree right-turn and had her feet right up against my stomach. It just so happened that I had taken precautions before I went to sleep and had left some space between myself and the wall I was sleeping alongside, which I was able to use to move away from the two of them.

Because our savings have been somewhat depleted as result of Declan’s dealings with the Civil Appeals Office in the Royal Courts of Justice (more about that in the next blog), we have been selling The Big Issue at our two pitches outside Liverpool Street station between 7.30am and 9.00am, in addition to the other hours we usually sell it at. We don’t sell much so early, but £8-10 when you are homeless means a lot.

This morning after 9.00am Declan went to the Whitechapel Mission to wash while I went to the Dellow Centre to do a small laundry and have a shower. Things are even worse there than before. I waited for 20 minutes in the queue in the freezing cold and rain, when there was only 11 homeless in front me when I first arrived. I wasn’t able to do a laundry – maybe tomorrow, I was told – and the TV has been covered with a blanket and turned around so that it now faces the wall. I heard a volunteer say to one of the homeless, who was inquiring as to why he couldn’t watch TV anymore, that the management doesn’t want the TV on … management being, of course, the Sisters of Mercy.

It is an indictment, I think, of how little Tower Hamlets Council is doing to improve the conditions for homeless people that we have to queue for so long, in the heart of winter, for the little and erratic services we get from the Dellow Centre.