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Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Council bans Big Issue seller

March 06 2012
Removing Peterborough man’s income would help him face up to homelessness, according to Peterborough officials 

 

A rough sleeper in Peterborough was banned from selling the Big Issue by council officials who were urging him to “sort out his accommodation problem”.

John Chivers, 49, had been a Big Issue vendor for 22 years when the council removed copies of the magazine as well as his official vendor’s badge. Speaking in January, he said: “I was gutted. It was my income. I thought ‘what am I going to do?’ I thought ‘talk about kicking a guy when he’s down.’”

Mr Chivers had been sleeping in a tent on the city’s Embankment since mid-November after he split up with his partner. Upon discovering the rough sleeper, Peterborough City Council held talks with a homelessness charity and decided that removing his only source of income would encourage him to face up to his homelessness.

A council spokeswoman said: “The council had asked if Peterborough Streets could help in any way to get Mr Chivers to sort out his accommodation problem. After lots of conversation it was decided to take away his supply of the Big Issue.

“The council has a duty to help people who are sleeping rough. With falling temperatures, these are dangerous conditions for someone living in a tent.”

After his local paper, Peterborough Evening Telegraph, made enquiries to the council and the Big Issue about Mr Chivers’ predicament, his badge was restored. The 49-year-old is now relieved that the whole “ridiculous” situation is over. “I can hold my head up again”, he said. “I haven’t got to sit here looking at people’s shoes all day.”

We spoke to the Big Issue to ask whether they had supported the council’s decision to remove Mr Chivers’ badge. Communications manager for the Big Issue, Lara McCullagh, said that the magazine has “no rules or regulations” on how long a vendor may sell for.

“We cannot comment on the case in question”, she added, “but I can say that our vendors can stay with us for as long as they wish, provided that they do not breach our code of conduct. Selling our magazine is sometimes the only stability these people have in their lives and we understand that.”

But Ms McCullagh also suggested that if “a vendor has been with [us] for some time”, the organisation is keen for vendors to move onto “other training or jobs if they become available”. So with his 22-year selling history, would Mr Chivers have been a candidate to encourage out? And is there an average length of time that a vendor sells for before being encouraged to seek other opportunities?

According to McCullagh “We deal with each issue on a case-by- case basis, but nobody would be forced to leave - unless they had breached their contract. Our vendors could be with us for anything from a few days, just to get straight, to several years. But we don’t have a centralised, nationwide database for a number of reasons so I can’t give you any specific information.” Asked whether the database is in existence but not accessible by press, Ms McCullagh confirmed that they have no such database in existence.

Earlier this month, Inside Housing surveyed 22 English councils about the number of rough sleepers in their areas, with some councils reporting as much as a 164 per cent increase in numbers of people on the streets. With such tough economic times ahead and the number of rough sleepers on the rise one very important question remains: How does an organisation dedicated to working to help “thousands of homeless and vulnerably housed people to take control of their lives” achieve its difficult aim without detailed information on its vendors?

We will be following up this story in next month’s issue as we get to the bottom of Mr Chivers’ case and find out how the Big Issue achieves its difficult aim.

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