Central to the reasoning to close Westminster House given by Cllr Roger Mazillius at the Cabinet Meeting last week was the ‘support’ of something called the Whole Life Group.
In fact in Cllr Mazillius’ words from that meeting, it “came down unanimously that the service could be better delivered from the Gouldings.”
At the meeting, this was met with vocal objections from the public gallery (in fact, I don’t recall seeing the Cabinet so uneasy with the reaction of the public previously).
Whole Life Group quoted
On Tuesday this week the press release distributed by the IWC, on 8 Sept, said “The Whole Life Group, including staff representatives, has now unanimously supported a proposal to stop using Westminster House and transfer the service to enhanced facilities at The Gouldings, Freshwater and the Adelaide at Ryde.”
On Monday VentnorBlog spoke to someone – Bill McKenzie – who was at that Whole Life Group meeting who categorically denies the unanimous support of the group for the closure of Westminster House.
Bill was at the meeting as the representative for the Carers’ Forum at The Whole Life Group.
“It’s absolutely untrue,”
“It’s absolutely untrue,” he told VentnorBlog, “If there had been a vote, I would have had to abstain, because I’m representing the whole of the carers, not just myself.
“This is absolutely not true. There was never a vote.
“The only thing I can think it that they [IWC] are starting to panic. They have in their minds to sell Westminster House and they won’t have any opposition to that plan.
“From the meeting tonight, we’ve found out all the possible reasons why this plan simply will not work. It won’t work for carers, user or the staff.”
Dispute
If what Bill says is correct, is it right that the findings of the Whole Life Group should be used to ‘legitimise’ the closure of Westminster House?
Listen for yourself …
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/bill-mckenzie-carers-forum-lies.mp3]
