11:22am Friday 11th September 2009
TOWN councillors have rejected a plea to help a new fund designed to prevent people using a notorious suicide hot-spot in Nelson.
An appeal had been made to Nelson Town Council to support a local fund, asking for £40,000 to install extra security fencing at the top of the town’s multi-storey car park, off Broadway.
But town councillors ruled they had insufficient funds – and that if people wanted to commit suicide they would just find another location to do so.
Councillors discussed the suicide prevention scheme for around 17 minutes. Earlier they had spent more than 20 minutes debating the merits of ink-jet cartridges for town clerk Martin Harrison’s printer.
Town council chairman Coun George Adams, as a funding committee member for the multi-storey car park project, was not present and did not vote following the debate.
Claire Judson, whose father Jimmy Haselden plunged to his death from the car park, has begun an online petition and Face-book group calling for the car park to be demolished. And the Suicide Prevention Fund, proposed by Pendle Community Safety Partner-ship and backed by police, has already received a £10,000 pledge from Pendle Council.
Controversially car park owners, Manchester-based 4AD Properties, have also refused to contribute to the appeal efforts.
Town clerk Mr Harrison said the council was not being asked to provide the outstanding £20,000, for the works, but consider making a contribution to the scheme.
Coun Shirley Jones said: “I’m sorry but people are just going to go up to the railway station, and throw themselves off, or Brierfield Bridge, or the motorway, which would possibly kill even more people. It is not going to stop them.”
Coun Adam Grant said: “Even though this is being done for all the right reasons, as have been mentioned, we should wash our hands of it.
“We should not be spending this money on a privately-owned building.”
And an amendment to make a donation to the Samaritans, in lieu of a suicide fund contribution, was also rejected by councillors.
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