LETTER: I want to know why

An open letter to Lincolnshire County Council, South Holland District Council, and the people of South Holland.
The Ivo Day Centre in Albion Street will close on September 9 this year.
We will vacate the building as instructed by the legal department at County Hall.
We will leave along with approximately 250 residents of South Holland whom we have supported and cared for over the years.
We will close the charity because it can no longer fulfil its Memorandum and Articles of Association, and the operations side will close, because we have no place to call our own.
I understand the need to repossess the building. What I do not understand is why both LCC and SHDC have chosen to abrogate their duty to the people of South Holland for whom the Ivo Day Centre was the core of their world.
This was a place which has done the job of work it was entrusted with, for just one year shy of four decades. Ninety days is what we have been given to vacate, no discussion with the decision makers, and no interest in our work.
It is fair to say that some of the leaving groups have been offered alternative accommodation. However, nothing absolutely fits the bill, and I would like to offer my sincere thanks to those kindly people who have stepped up to the coal face with help and support.
It will cost us money to close, so we will leave nothing behind, we will sell everything to support those groups and people who have been displaced to the best of our ability and for as long as we are able.
Even at this late stage, if the decision were miraculously reversed, I doubt we could bring back all that we have lost.
So, all you councillors, I want to know why we have been evicted, why couldn’t we have a lease and do the job we were asked to do.
Who finally decided that we had no purpose? Whose bright idea was it to end an institution which was doing something worthwhile?
What did we do to deserve the way we have been treated, and please can someone tell me how I explain this to one of my learning disabled clients, who wants to know: “Why can’t we come here anymore. Why don’t you want me any more?”
Sue Croucher
Manager of the Ivo Day Centre (until September)