The Markhouse Centre, which has hosted adults with special educational needs since 1984, has been earmarked for closure by Waltham Forest Council, reports Marco Marcelline

A coalition of trade union activists, civic campaigners, and local carers have pledged to continue their fight against the closure of a disabled adults centre in Walthamstow.
The Markhouse Centre, which has hosted adults with special educational needs since 1984, has been earmarked for closure by Waltham Forest Council, who say that the centre is too expensive to maintain.
At a meeting organised by Waltham Forest Trades Council at the William Morris Community Centre in Greenleaf Road yesterday (30th January), activists and carers lambasted the council’s plan to shut it in June.
Will Wellington, a Markhouse Centre bus driver for six years, called the planned closure a “disaster” for centre users, their families, and staff who work there.
Taking aim at councillors who voted to close the centre in December, he added: “They do everything for themselves and not the community.”
Jane Reeves, whose sister Sally has attended the Markhouse since the 1980s, also spoke during the meeting.
Accusing the Labour-run council of “exaggerating” the £1.2million repair bill for the centre, Jane said she feared it would end up being sold to hungry housing developers.
During a December vote to close the centre, council leader Grace Williams said the council had made the decision to close it because the “alternatives are worse”.
She added that the council faced a “high prospect” of effective bankruptcy if it did not make budget cuts.
At the meeting yesterday, Socialist Party activist Linda Taaffe explicitly criticised councillors, saying: “When you see and hear what these Labour councillors are doing, it just turns your stomach. They’ve said it’s not about buildings; it’s about people. Well they just want to move them into little buildings that aren’t suitable. I haven’t heard one of the parents and carers affected say [that the proposed alternative buildings] are suitable.”
Continuing her tirade against the council, she said: “They’re contemptuous. They do not care. Councillors are told what to do. You ask what they think about Markhouse and they freeze up. None of them have been [to the Markhouse Centre]; they just care about getting their pay checks so they’re keeping their mouths shut.”
A survey report used by Waltham Forest councillors to justify closing the Markhouse Centre is being reviewed after it was revealed that the council has a 25% stake in the company that did the survey.
The review is expected to go back before the cabinet in February.
Waltham Forest Trades Council are holding a conference for Palestine on Sunday 2nd February from 2-6pm, email [email protected] for more information
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