Barry Sullivan

• IT is with added sadness that friends and colleagues of Barry Sullivan will gather to mark the 13th anniversary of his passing knowing that Eric Gordon will be added to the roll call of other “absent friends” that we remember each year.

Your late editor would often ring me around this time of year to “chat” about Barry ahead of writing a piece about Barry’s anniversary.

Barry’s bench in Camden Gardens only came to fruition due to the efforts of Cllr Roger Robinson, who always leads with a few poignant words about the loss of Barry as a friend but predominantly as a activist and a provider of an advice plus service (as they would call it these days).

Camden Town Neighbourhood Advice Centre turned no one away, judged no one and advocated for them in court, at tribunals and in housing and debt issues.

The debt almost always resulted from inadequate welfare benefits leaving families living in ongoing fuel and food poverty.

Barry Sullivan and other volunteers saw that reality in black and white when they completed incomings and outgoings forms to demonstrate the inability to pay overdue rent, council tax, electric or gas bill.

Barry and CTNAC chair, Gloria Lazenby as well as Ellen Luby, who both also have benches near Barry’s, would certainly now be part of the campaign to retain the £20 increase in Universal Credit and no doubt be busy distributing food parcels while decrying the need for this in a rich country in 2021.

We will gather, safely, at Barry’s bench again this Monday August 30 at 2pm in Camden Gardens, Camden Street, to mark Barry’s passing and to remember all those gone but not forgotten, who fought for others, such as housing campaigner David Rogers and former councillor and trustee of CTNAC, Pat Nightingale.

That we meet physically to remember them all is part of their legacy that they left the job that they started to be continued by us all.

CATHY POUND
On behalf of all friends of Barry Sullivan