Plas Madoc Stand-Off
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So a woman from Plas Madoc publicly live-streamed her being evicted from a council house this afternoon, an incident that was reported in the Leader.
http://www.facebook.com/annie.jones.547/videos/10205103534345539/
I don’t think the video link is going directly to the video for some reason, but you can view it publicly on her timeline.The video goes on for ages, but I can’t help but feel that it was a massive level of disruption and complete waste of police resources just to remove 1 female and her 4 children from the property.
The shop, chippy and chemists all had to be closed for hours, so will have lost trade and the countless number of police officers and police vehicles attending could have been around Wrexham doing more important things, such as actually fighting crime. Not to mention other residents in the area also had to leave their homes.
We all know how this is going to go down – I don’t know the exact details of why she was being evicted – something to do with drugs and rent arrears – she rants a lot about various issues and discusses issues with a police officer – but she has 4 kids and apparently has social services on-side, so she’ll end up in emergency B&B accommodation for months and then re-housed again, probably in a nice house – all at a massive cost to the rate-payer. Rate-payers would also have had to have burdened the costs of the gas man who came and switched the gas off and the locksmith – plus whatever fixes and repairs and cleaning to make the initial house re-tenant-able.
The woman clearly is not without criticism as she is ultimately at fault for it reaching this situation through her lifestyle choices and she is enjoying the whole scene she’s created like when you get a disruptive kid at school, but ultimately the council could have dealt with the situation in a manner that didn’t shut down half of Plas Madoc for the best part of the afternoon – for very little gain.
The fact that the video has been viewed thousands of times and shared hundreds of times where it is repeatedly reinforced that a woman with 4 young children are being evicted and effectively made homeless – victim card massively being played – is going to be a PR disaster for Wrexham council and the police.
Matt – I think when you see the detailed media statement from the Police you will appreciate why they had such a large presence. An extremely difficult and sensitive issue that is beyond a straightforward eviction.
Also, it is legally not possible for a Council to carry out an eviction that leaves anyone who has children with them in a homeless position – out of one property into an alternative at another location.[quote quote=152065]Matt – I think when you see the detailed media statement from the Police you will appreciate why they had such a large presence. An extremely difficult and sensitive issue that is beyond a straightforward eviction.
Also, it is legally not possible for a Council to carry out an eviction that leaves anyone who has children with them in a homeless position – out of one property into an alternative at another location.[/quote]Can you link me to the police statement? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Yes, that was partly my point of criticism – the fact that it’s impossible to evict a parent with children and leave them homeless. Why bother to evict them in the first place? If they are just going to be re-housed anyway in the local area? Causing great expense and in this case hassle.
Matt no statement appears to have been made yet by the Police — Plas Madoc rumour mongering is ripe at the moment so let’s wait for official comments.
You are perfectly right about the stupidity of evicting someone then to be rehoused under the Council Emergency Housing protocol.
Not sure if it is still the same but the eviction team and emergency housing a few years ago both used to sit almost next to each other in the same office.
For someone to get to this state with 4 children in the house raises the question about why Children’s Social Services and Family support was not available before today?Haha, didn’t realise you meant future statement just re-read it. I will await and see what they have to say.
The main reason I felt compelled to post up was due to the complete lack of official information on the situation. The Leader’s article doesn’t really explain anything and then all there is, is raw footage of the event and like you say lots of rumours going about.
I can see that there are lots of legal considerations to be careful about and possibly causing restrictions on reporting due to the nature of children being involved. But I’d be very interested to see if she wanted the Leader and TV cameras there – then will she be looking to take it to the national tabloids next? They absolutely love swooping on this sort of viral video.
The evacuation was due to the potentially significant risk to residents located around the house where the standoff was occurring. If the incident had developed and threats acted on then there could have been a significant danger to those in the area.
All just need to be grateful that the incident was concluded without injury.The children are the losers in this sorry situation. I haven’t viewed the film but how sad that she would embarrass them in this way. There was a time when an eviction would be a cause for shame.
[quote quote=152103]The children are the losers in this sorry situation. I haven’t viewed the film but how sad that she would embarrass them in this way. There was a time when an eviction would be a cause for shame.[/quote]
It is true, I feel very sorry for the kids – effectively being used as a bargaining chip in the whole thing.
Woman – you can’t make me homeless I’ve got 4 kids.
Council – give your kids up to care & we’ll let you back on the council house register in 6 months & you’ll get your kids back.
Social services – being stuck between a rock and a hard place – legally nothing to take the children away from the mother as has not done anything wrong in their eyes – but has to officiate on a council enforced eviction where the person is never going to give their children up because who in their right mind would give their children up to be made homeless and be away from them when they know it’s illegal for the council to make families with children homeless.
There needs to be a look into this whole policy area – highly complex I suspect – where the council has to evict someone to show they have teeth and more often than not it’s because they are owed money – ironically to have to rehouse the evicted family at even greater cost and also put people up in expensive B&Bs when they find them a new house of suitable size. You know where’s available? The house they’ve just been evicted from!
Some kind of perverse merry go round. I’m looking at this from an objective and monetary saving point of view rather than whether or not these individuals and families deserve all these free rides and special treatment. As I can imagine it grows quite tiresome for those on the waiting list who always pay the council on time and behave or are stuck in their parents house etc…
Matt you are spot on highlighting the revolving door that operates with the Council- in through the door for one service, bounced out to another and so on. I would have hoped that with a family heading for eviction that Social Services would have been involved with the Housing Department to try and establish a solution. If they have only come in at the time of eviction it shows they failed in their Duty of Care to the children. No doubt more details will come at some time if the mum has been charged with any offences.
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