Camden Council’s contracted waste operator throwing away the tents

• THE reaction of councillors to your headline “INHUMANE” about the destruction of the tents and possessions of some 12 homeless people is deeply concerning, (Homeless tents tossed into a rubbish truck, the images that shame Camden, November 16).

The message from the pictures is that homeless people are considered by Camden Council as “rubbish” and must be removed from the borough in dust carts.

At first the council reaction was to deny any participation in this barbaric act. Then the council was forced to coyly use the words “operational involvement” to try to hide the fact that council officers (presumably) had ordered Veolia to crush the tents of 12 homeless people together with their personal possessions.

The focus of senior councillors was on trying to find somebody to blame for this horrific act. Guess what, they are to blame as the buck stops with them.

The emphasis must be on helping the 12 people to get their lives back together and then look for somebody to blame.

To blame the government and the broken housing market is nonsense. It was Camden Council, under the administration of councillors, responsible for the destruction of these homes.

Phrases of Councillor Georgia Gould like “Camden will be a place where everyone matters” reek of hypocrisy. She might have added “so long as you don’t live in a tent because you are homeless”.

How can any homeless person living on the streets now trust any member of staff of the “Routes off the Streets”?

Any “investigation” must be independent of the council. This “crime” is yet another example of how some officers and departments are allowed to treat the most vulnerable members of the borough with contempt.

As a first move to prove that the council means what Cllr Gould says, Cllr Adam Harrison should tender his resignation. Either he failed to know what was going on in his bailiwick (and should have on such a serious matter) or knew and approved it.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED