Shocked neighbours in Hopeville Avenue, Broadstairs, have described Orbit Housing's demand they remove their communal meeting place as “health and safety gone mad”.
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00:00The reason for setting this up, this hub, Hopeville Friends and Neighbours Hub,
00:05was for the well-being of my neighbours and also myself as well really. Our mental health,
00:12the physicalities involved with my neighbours, they're elderly, they're a little bit older than
00:16me and they need help. They're single, living in single lives in single houses and it's very
00:23difficult for them to get out and associate with each other. So when I moved in, I'm a bit gregarious
00:30so I decided to say hello to all my new neighbours and then ask them about, oh that neighbour over
00:35there you just like you know nodded to, what's her name? And kind of like the answer might be
00:40don't really know. So I decided to get everybody talking, make it a community rather than just a
00:48collection and so this impromptu hub started. I started a Facebook, I started a WhatsApp page
00:57so as they can instantly put a message out that will go to all members. The seating that we've
01:02got at the moment, which is in question, came about through firstly the King's Coronation.
01:09Generally we're just about at capacity now so it's almost like we need more seating but we
01:15don't want to do that because Orbit has taken exception to this as a hub of like peace and
01:23tranquility and mental help and physical help to anybody, whoever wants to come over at any time,
01:29passers-by, dog walkers sit down and have a cup of tea with us. It's really, it's a really nice
01:36feeling to help people so what we're trying to do is keep that. Now it's substantially here,
01:46we'd like to keep it, Orbit don't want that and it would, personally speaking, it would completely
01:52cripple me if they took this away. Not because it's outside the front of mind because I started
02:00it, because many days when I'm not even here people will still come and gather because they
02:06know it's a gathering spot. If this went, this hub, I'd be devastated not only for me but for everybody else.