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Concessional Travel
The London Transport Board, issue concession tickets for
registered blind persons every three years and the last issue expired on
31st December, 1967. The department assisted the London Transport Board
on the redistribution of 150 new tickets to blind persons in the Borough.
Holidays for Blind Persons
39 holiday grants at £5 each were approved to enable blind
persons to have a holiday during 1967, so that the expenditure incurred by
the Sutton Association for the Blind for this purpose was £234• A further
total of 21 blind and partially-sighted persons was included in a party of
physically disabled persons who went to Maddiesons Holiday Camp at
Littlestone on the Kentish Coast. The holiday demonstrated that blind and
handicapped persons could participate very successfully in a group holiday,
and consequently similar arrangements for 1968 will be made at a Holiday
Camp on Hayling Island.
Outings
A most enjoyable outing was held in August when a party of
40 blind members of the Handicraft Class and their friends went by coach
to Bognor Regis. A further outing was held in September, when a party of
approximately 100 blind people from the Friendly Club for the Blind visited
Eastbourne.
Temporary Accommodation
The Council is responsible for providing temporary accommodation
for "persons who are in urgent need thereof, being need arising in
circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen, or in such
other circumstances as the authority may in any particular case determine".
The original interpretation of this definition was that temporary
accommodation was available for victims of fire, flood or similar disasters,
but a more liberal view was taken by the Council and the only qualification
for admission is that parents with dependent children are actually homeless.
This interpretation was confirmed by a joint Ministry Circular issued on the
31st October, 1966 which proposed new standards to be observed.
The Council provides 16 units of temporary accommodation
in three houses situated at Sutton, Beddington and Carshalton.
The first two accommodate both parents and dependent children, whereas
the last provides accommodation for mothers and children only. The majority
of families admitted are temporarily homeless because they have been evicted
from their previous residences for non-payment of rent. In the case of
evictions from Council property, these are planned only as a last resort and
when temporary accommodation is available for them. During families'
stay in temporary accommodation every effort is made to encourage them to
re-establish themselves and to help in this work long-stay units have been made
available in which re-habilitation work has met with some success.
Further comment on this work is to be found in the Section of this report
dealing with Prevention of Break-up of Families.
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