To fellow Soho residents, from Father Alexander Sherbrooke

• I AM writing to you concerning the feeding operation we have been asked to run by Westminster Council in Soho Square.

I am aware of the concerns that some of the local residents have concerning this operation which I fully understand.

This letter is to offer both an opportunity for any concerned residents to come and talk but also to outline a significant change we are making in response to the anxieties expressed to me.

Covid-19 places all of us in a unique and challenging situation and part of that is the pressing need that some of the most vulnerable, excluded and homeless people in London are asking for help.

Westminster Council some five weeks ago, asked us to extend the service that we were already running in the basement of the church to being able to feed in the square from the front of the church, twice a day, seven days a week, with all the necessary hygiene and social distancing asked by the government.

With a somewhat heavy heart we acceded to this, given the enormous financial, administrative and material commitment this would put on us as a parish.

Since then we have refined it somewhat so until this last Thursday, we were doing breakfast, 9am to 11am every day and then lunch Monday to Friday 3pm to 5pm.

In those five weeks the nature of our client group has evolved significantly which has also increased the demands upon us.

At the same time from the council, residents and the police I have heard of various concerns.

I am in no way insensitive to this but, at the same time, there is both the pressing need of the people that we are serving and then the request of the city council.

In order to establish a different pattern and to try to refine our client group, we cancelled lunch on Friday last, May 1, and from Monday May 4.

We will be serving breakfast as we are at the moment, every day, but then only serving lunch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This means that we are going to drop our lunch service on Tuesday and Thursday.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have had to do this with a very heavy heart because it means that some of our most vulnerable people may go hungry, although the council have assured me that they will endeavour to compensate in other areas of the borough for those who are without food.

One of the most pressing concerns is the lack of lavatory, shower and laundry facilities. I did try to address the question of lavatories, of which there were very few available, some days ago by offering to pay for and to site by the side of the church.

I was told very firmly by the council that permission would not be received for this. I have been assured however that the council are doing all that they can to open up more of these facilities in the borough and I hope as a result that the situation will now improve.

We are living in a far from ideal situation but I do hope that reducing the service we offer will go some way to answering the concerns of the local community.

Please be assured of my thoughts, prayers and best wishes at this time.

FR ALEXANDER SHERBROOKE
Parish Priest, St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church