LEADERS of a drug rehabilitation service have apologised to the council leader for publicly refuting his claims about their position on a soup kitchen.
Westminster Drug Project (WDP) bosses say Mike Fisher was in fact reflecting their views when he said they believed the Nightwatch service in Queens Gardens was "more of a social gathering and a reason to hang around and continue drinking."
They had publicly said his comments to the council did "not in any way represent our views," but they have now taken that back, saying it was "not made clear to them" what he had actually said.
In a letter to Cllr Fisher dated April 11, leaders said: "We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise to you for recent adverse media coverage on this topic and confirm that the views you expressed do accurately reflect our position."
Nightwatch continues to reject the characterisation, reiterating this week that most of its users "are not drug or drink abusers; they are most commonly now people who have some work but not enough money to live on."
In their letter, WDP leaders explained they visited the soup kitchen during July and August last year, to see whether its clients were causing problems and find others who might need help.
They said that while service users known to WDP were in Queens Gardens at the time, only two to three of them "were in genuine need of the service (i.e. known to be rough sleeping with issues around benefits)."
Leaders added that "some clients" were drunk and not interested in the food, while the range of people there highlighted how "open-access food provision aimed at targeting the most vulnerable can become attractive to those whose circumstances may not be as unfortunate."
Cllr Fisher welcomed their letter, saying: "This has been a trying game of rumour and innuendo which resulted in certain facts being called into question.
"I'm glad the Westminster Drug Project has been able to clarify what it originally said and confirm my assertions in the recent council meeting were correct."
Responding to the letter, Nightwatch leader Jad Adams added his charity was "proud of our work and the way we go about it".
He continued: "WDP has now been rather more specific in its remarks, which turn out to be that Nightwatch is not doing what the WDP does."
