Trustee Vickie Pite appeals for help running the borough’s biggest campaigning group
Who is going to support older people in Enfield, keep them informed, and always bear them in mind?
These are the questions that we as trustees of Enfield Over 50s Forum ask ourselves, as we contemplate an Enfield without the forum after 30 years of dedicated voluntary service.
Unless Enfield Over 50s Forum recruits more volunteers, we will be forced to close as a trust and charity. Four of the current trustees have served for the full 30 years – almost a working lifetime’s service! Many others have had to step down.
Consider what Enfield Over 50s Forum has achieved and the work it continues to do. We campaign to help older people lead happier, healthier lives and to ensure that everyone in the borough is treated fairly by the council, local health and transport bodies, as well as national government.
Successful campaigns have included extending the 307 bus into the grounds of Barnet Hospital; working with the council on community toilet and ‘shopmobility’ schemes and faster pavement repairs; stopping the use of expensive 0844 numbers by GP surgeries; and helping to save Southgate Orchestra.
Our ‘Enfield Declaration for Fairer Funding’ campaign to improve government funding for public health services in Enfield collected over 10,000 signatures. By demanding answers over why Enfield has some of the most poverty-stricken public health wards in the country, but receives the tenth-lowest public health grant in London at £47 per head, compared with the London average of £73, we got the attention of local MPs, faith and community leaders, and the government of the time.
We also lobbied parliament to protect universal benefits such as the Freedom Pass, winter fuel allowance, free TV Licences for over 75s, and free prescriptions. Regrettably, some fights continue; the government has now withdrawn the universal winter fuel allowance and Enfield Council is proposing to close half of Enfield’s libraries.
The forum is taking a stance on these issues, providing help for eligible pensioners to claim pension credit to mitigate the loss of the winter fuel allowance, and petitioning Enfield Council to retain eight community libraries, which we argue are essential to the health, wellbeing and social fabric of our communities.
The forum insists that flourishing libraries create flourishing communities, and speaks up for vulnerable and excluded communities, young and old alike.
But it’s not just about campaigns. The forum runs a wide range of meetings, interest groups and clubs to keep members active. But we need help, so if you can, please contact our office and you will be sent some information about what being a trustee involves.
For more information about Enfield Over 50s Forum and to get involved:
Call 020 8807 2076
Visit enfieldover50sforum.org.uk
Sign the forum’s petition to save Enfield’s libraries:
Visit governance.enfield.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay
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