Life is like a fox of chocolates

Unintentionally homeless
Staff at Mid Sussex District Council’s Haywards Heath offices had to deal with a particularly distressed local looking for lodgings last week. A young fox, suffering from malnutrition and mange, wandered into the office for environment initiatives and was referred to the housing department. A nearby animal sanctuary was selected as providing the most suitable accommodation.

Choc-full of charity
Chocolate is good for you: it’s official … well, if you’re homeless, anyway. Cadbury has become the first company in the UK to offer a permanent pitch to a Big Issue vendor.

As part of a scheme initiated by the Big Issue Foundation to encourage vendors to get off the streets and into a comfortable work environment, a vendor sells the homelessness magazine at Cadbury’s Birmingham HQ every Wednesday.

An offer she couldn’t refuse
The latest high-profile success for Manchester council’s version of The Untouchables is the case of the “Godmother of the Gooch”. But it wasn’t Mafioso-style tax evasion that brought down this Godmother; it was the far more prosaic issue of street brawling.

The council’s crack team of nuisance specialists secured an antisocial behaviour order against 46-year-old Sandra Ashcroft following incidents when she harassed and caused distress to her neighbours in the Old York Street area of Hulme.

Ashcroft apparently chose her nickname herself, referring to the notorious Gooch Close gang from Moss Side – a bunch of people best known for drug dealing, violence and gun-related crimes.

Nappy endings
Homelessness charity Thames Reach Bondway has pulled off a PR coup: getting itself a slot on prime-time telly last night.

The star of BBC2’s I’m Alright Jack was Andrew Diaper, a high-living, ostentatious businessman whose week with the charity was followed by the cameras. How touching it was to see this initially dislikeable bloke shaken out of his “comfort zone”.

Since the show was filmed, Diaper has been raising money for the charity through a website, www.justgiving.com/andrewdiaper. The list of online donations so far includes £5 from one Anne-Marie Diaper and £20 from someone called Jeremy Swain.

Look out – it’s the taste police
Footballers are under attack again, from an unlikely group: planners. Minister Keith Hill decreed on Tuesday that no more mock Tudorbethan mansions are to be built in Britain’s countryside.

Instead, all new homes must obey “the highest standards of contemporary design”. He made no comment on helipads and thrones in the dining room, however.

That's us told

The Keep Britain Tidy campaign says the blame for the prevalence of graffiti on our streets rests on the shoulders of advertisers, pop musicians and – who’d have thought it – the media.

Apparently, we’re sending out the wrong message about graffiti: instead of presenting it as a blight on urban architecture, many actively “celebrate” it.

Surely they can’t mean features like “A measured response” in last week’s Housing Today? Social Animal feels quite chastened.

Source

Housing Today