The van lady (From The Argus)

The van lady

2:27pm Wednesday 3rd February 2010 in

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With reference to your article about van dwellers facing eviction (The Argus, January 25), Mary Mears’s description of van dwellers as making an “unacceptable lifestyle choice” is pure nastiness.

Many years ago I worked in the office of a small meat packing firm. After about a month there I discovered that my manager had been camping in his car every night in the warehouse forecourt. His marriage had broken down and he had nowhere else to go.

Lifestyle choice, indeed.

I have met quite a few van dwellers over the years, and they are a very varied bunch of people. One or two were quite isolated older people. Others were extremely sociable types.

What they had in common – apart from their resourcefulness and independence – was that they were too hard- up to afford the mad prices of rented accommodation in this city.

Lifestyle choice, indeed.

Until recently, these folk had tiny, vibrant communities – with much mutual self-help – around The Level, Preston Park, Queen’s Park, Freshfield Road and Kingsway. Many local people supported them there.

Van dwellers’ lifestyles are far more sustainable and low-impact than those of us settled residents. Mary Mears’s Conservative Party is chock-a-block with the super-rich whose lifestyle choices are parasitic and deeply damaging to the environment.

Leave van dwellers alone, Mary Mears, until your party has the decency to offer them permanent affordable housing they can be proud of.

Peter Reeves
Roedale Road, Brighton