Cutting a swath through a vulnerable community

By Nicola Barry
Aberdeen Press & Journal
20 August 2004

Quoting from Nicola Barry:

" What is being proposed will ruin the lives of some of this country’s most vulnerable people.

HERE'S a riddle for you: imagine a group in society, people who, for a one reason or another, are slower than most; people who don't like a lot of noise, bustle, the rat race; who crave quiet, calm and a nurturing environment.

Eventually, this group finds an idyll, deep in the heart of the countryside, builds on it, ending up with the perfect setting; one, that suits all their purposes.

Along comes another group of people, with loud ambitions, - rat-race types, a step ahead of a everybody else. They decide to put a road right through this a haven.
In they blunder with their size-16 feet, no thought for the people whose lives they are about to ruin. Their plans are crass, insensitive, brutal and unnecessary.
Here is the riddle. Which of these two groups of people has a learning difficulty?

Stumped? Not sure?
That's funny; neither am I.

In case you didn't know, Camphill exists for people in need of special care. The Camphill establishment in Aberdeen is split into two complexes: Newton Dee for adults and Murtle for young people. The social lives of young and old are intermingled.
Set in beautiful, peaceful surroundings, the Aberdeen establishment is the original centre of the worldwide Camphill movement, brainchild of Viennese paediatrician Dr Karl Konig, ..... "

"Konig knew what he was doing. His plans live on to this day. Newton Dee has its: own bakery, store and cafe. For more than 60 years, self-sufficiency and creativity have been the order of the day.

The Scottish Executive now wants the Camphill community to allow access for survey work a to be carried out for the building of the £120million Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

A spokesman said: "As a last resort, ministers are entitled by law to access the land to carry out these tests and can go to court, seeking an order to force that”

OBJECTIONS to this road are not new. They have been ongoing since 1993 when the plan was first mooted, but now the road has the go-ahead and preliminary work has begun. The dual-carriageway will split Newton Dee and Murtle as deftly as any atom bomb.
What is being proposed will divide this precious community, create a scar across the countryside and, without exaggeration, ruin the lives of some of this country's most vulnerable people.

Not only have ministers been low enough to suggest building a dual-carriageway through the village but - and this is unbelievable - they have also threatened court action against the community.

If ever there was an abuse of power, this has to be it."

Nicola Barry continues:

"Ministers should make an effort to educate themselves about Camphill and its work.
Many adults with learning disabilities are highly sensitive individuals. They don't like a lot of stimulus and can be overwhelmed by background noise such as more than one person talking at a time.

The opening of this bypass can only damage the ethos at Camphill, and that is not a good thing.

Change is scary for everyone, but for people with learning disabilities change may be particularly difficult, especially for children who, at the best of times, tend to prefer the status quo.

Think back 20 years or so. Then many people with learning difficulties were shut away in remote in institutions, out of everybody's way. I can remember visiting hospitals where patients lay on their beds all day: There was nothing wrong with them. They weren't sick. They were in bed simply because they couldn't think as fast as other people.

The wards were dirty, the loos and sinks blocked. There was no privacy, no place to call your own and most of the wards were locked. There was talk of care in the community but, in 1980, it seemed like a distant vision.

THANKS to a few far-sighted people, however, most of those large institutions are closed. In Glasgow, the last person in a long stay hospital has moved out into their own home in the community.

Disability in general is like inhabiting a strange and far-off country. To be disabled is to be ; deprived of ability, but also, in today’s so-called progressive Scotland, it is to be deprived of freedom, choice and dignity, unless you live in a place 1ike Camphill, where people are valued despite their disabilities.

It's OK if your disability is temporary, if you happen to be a visitor rather than an immigrant to this strange county, but some people are there for the long haul.

The beauty of Camphill is its focus on what residents can do, I not what they can't. They are I encouraged to be themselves. Away from prying, often judgmental, eyes, they can grow and develop, learn to live useful lives.

THOSE planning this road have shown complete disregard for these facts. They have not thought about how splitting the community will affect Camphill's whole infrastructure.

In misguided mitigation, the planners have said they will put up fences to ensure nobody strays on to the bypass by accident.

Fences are not what Camphill is all about. Members of staff have spent a lifetime trying to break down barriers, encouraging residents to integrate, be part of their surroundings. People with learning disabilities do not wish to go back to the 70s, back to being shut away. Out of sight, out of mind. You can stuff your fence.

The residents, their families and local community are in danger of being trampled underfoot by the planners, emphasising the unsavoury fact that nobody is safe when they stand in the way, of the transport minister and his department.

It's all very well to plan super highways when you don't live near them. Motorists have always been a selfish bunch. They want to get from A to B as quickly and conveniently as possible, and are impatient. Motorists are not going to worry about destroying a therapeutic community.

I am sure the Scottish Executive has researched the case as well as it can and is quite convinced of the rightness of its cause.

What chance do a bunch of people with learning difficulties have against the might of the executive, even they do have broadcaster Jeremy Paxman on their side?
It isn’t a fair fight.

At the end of the day, if the executive had to take the plans elsewhere and find another site, it wouldn't be the end of the world. If it lost this particular fight, it wouldn't be the devastating blow it will assuredly be for the residents of Camphill."