EUSTON STATION: INFORMATION FACILITIES AND STAFFING (Hansard, 20 December 1976)

§ The Lord Bishop of LONDON
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, British Rail have agreed to make facilities available for leaflets giving information about the services available to people arriving in London without adequate preparation. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has offered to meet the initial cost of providing such leaflets.

§ The Lord Bishop of LONDON
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply which goes partly towards meeting the needs of those people who believe that a kiosk is essential. Can the noble Lord give an assurance that he will press for the erection of a kiosk, which would be manned by people who could give personal advice? Can he give us any information about the possibility of one of the lodges outside Euston Station being available? Furthermore, can the noble Lord say whether there is any substance in the rumour that the free lodge is in such a miserable condition that it may have to be demolished?

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords. since this matter was first raised in your Lordships' House—some appreciable time ago, I admit—it has given us an opportunity of taking a fresh look at the situation. On a former occasion I think I said 1073 that British Rail had refused to make available a booth on the concourse, and the question of the booth, which is known as the East Lodge, was under discussion. British Rail have said that information leaflets, which will be drawn up after consultation with the various voluntary organisations working in the area, will now be made available from the British Rail Information Services, which, as your Lordships may know, at Euston is right in the centre of things.
After very careful consideration and following discussions with the various voluntary organisations, it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that it would be better to help the various voluntary organisations themselves to do a much better job than they are doing at the moment, and not have the booth which we were considering at East Lodge. It is true that it is in a very dilapidated state, but that has nothing to do with the decision. In the past few months wehave been able to ascertain that on arrival at Euston, as at other London railway stations—and this also applies to Victoria Coach Station—very few people go to the existing facilities. They immediately go to the West End, and it is in the West End that these services are needed.
There are five voluntary organisations working in the West End doing a remarkably fine job, and it is felt that, if we could strengthen the work that they are doing and provide them with sufficient money to extend it, that would be preferable to having a booth in Euston which is some considerable distance from the railway station itself. I should point out that just outside Euston Station there is a Citizens' Advice Bureau, Saint Philomena's Hostel and Friends' House—all within a stone's throw of Euston Station—where help and advice can be given.

§ Lord BROCKWAY
My Lords, may I ask the Minister this question? In view of the large number of young people who come to London and are now found to be homeless, is it not desirable that the leaflet distribution should be accompanied by a kiosk at Euston Station, and other stations, to which these young people might he immediately directed? It is difficult for them to reach Friends' House or either of the other places unless they 1074 have information guiding them to those premises.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, in theory I would agree with my noble friend, but I was trying to say that there arc five organisations, which are known as the West End Co-ordinated Voluntary Services, who in fact go to stations, and particularly to Euston Station, and that one organisation patrols regularly by car to pick up boys and girls who are in need of help. We feel that what we have in mind will serve a much better purpose.

§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONE
My Lords, while I am sure the whole House will appreciate the personal interest which the noble Lord has shown in this matter, may I ask him whether part of the trouble is not or was not the existence of shady characters who were themselves lying in wait for these unfortunate young people? Can the noble Lord say whether anything has been done to intercept these doubtful characters and to prevent their activities?

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, so far as my personal knowledge is concerned, I would say to the noble and learned Lord that some of these organisations regularly patrol Euston Station with a view to getting hold of young persons. I do not know to what extent they have observed undesirable people, but it is a matter I should like to pursue.

§ Baroness MACLEOD of BORVE
My Lords, may I ask the Minister what will be in the leaflets, whether addresses will be given, how the leaflets will be distributed and whether they will also be distributed at the place at which the young people get on to the train—in other words, in Scotland or at Manchester, or at any of the big cities—as well as in London when they arrive?

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, we had a campaign some months ago in which posters and leaflets were distributed at railway stations in certain Northern towns, and this, we feel, has been successful. The content of the leaflet which we propose for the Railway Information Bureau at Euston will be drawn up by representatives of the voluntary organisations, of the local authority social services 1075 and of the Home Office. It will contain not only all the matters mentioned by the noble Baroness but other information as well. We are hoping that it will be possible to arrange a telephone system which will be available 24 hours a day.

§ Lord AVEBURY
My Lords, the noble Lord said that one of the problems is that young people pass straight through Euston without necessarily seeking the guidance which is available from the agencies located there, and that they arrive in the West End, where they are got at by a variety of undesirable influences. Does that not indicate that the same kind of facilities which the noble Lord has mentioned as being provided at Euston Station—that is, the leaflets—should be available centrally in the West End? Would he not consider advising Westminster Council to take over Playland, which we understand is still flourishing there, and to convert it for this purpose? —Playland being the place where these young people were got at by so many undesirables.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, one of the reasons why we want to involve further the five organisations working in the West End is because they, too, will be able to establish advisory and help centres, and to have the leaflets. As to the reference to Playland made by the noble Lord, I would have to pursue this with my right honourable friend.

§ The Lord Bishop of LONDON
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, it has already been necessary for me to spill over into the second Question of the right reverend Prelate, and I do not want to cover that ground again except to say that, in reply to his Question, the Answer is: No, my Lords. The Voluntary Services Unit already makes grants to GALS, 1076 which stands for the Girls Alone in London Service. That organisation, which is situated in the West Lodge at Euston Station, received from the Voluntary Services Unit at the Home Office £10,000 in the present financial year. In the current financial year we have made available £56,200 to the West End Co-ordinated Voluntary Services, which provide a variety of services for young people. I understand that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has offered to make additional money available to these agencies—the additional sum being a further £10,000—in order, as T tried to point out in reply to the right reverend Prelate's first Question, to make their facilities of service even more effective than they are at the present moment.

§ The Lord Bishop of LONDON
My Lords, while acknowledging the very great personal interest which the noble Lord takes in this matter and expressing gratitude for it, and while also thanking Her Majesty's Government for the information which the noble Lord has just given, may I ask him whether he will bear in mind that the personal influence and contact of skilled advisers cannot be replaced by leaflets? Will he bear in mind the importance of having, at key centres, places where people can go to receive personal guidance and advice from those skilled and experienced in the matter and able to give it?

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, the noble Lord will know that I have expressed myself a number of times on this matter: that we must not let loose on to the community woolly-minded, do-gooders. Part of the money is to be used to see that this kind of work is done by adequately trained people. I want to come back to what I said at the beginning. Only an infinitesimal number of boys and girls—and we have been able to establish this beyond reasonable doubt in recent weeks—go to West Lodge and even to the local services which are available just outside Euston. They go instead direct to the West End, and this we want to cover more effectively.

§ Lord SOPER
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the co-ordination of these various bodies, for one of which I am responsible, is a marked advance and one of the best preventatives against the kind 1077 of woolly do-good attitude which in some cases takes place? Is he further aware that nine out of 10 of those who request advice are asking for somewhere to put their head down that night? The problem of homelessness is the acutest of all these problems facing the organisations.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, this is so. The noble Lord is referring, I am sure, to the Kingsway Day Centre and we acknowledge the tremendous contribution that that centre is making as part of the co-ordinated voluntary services in the West End of London. But we are aware that one of the solutions to the present problem is the provision of more accommodation.

§ Lord TAYLOR of MANSFIELD
My Lords, in listening to the questions and answers it seems to me that all the emphasis for the provision of facilities for this service is on Euston Station. There are two adjacent stations, St. Pancras and King's Cross, serving the North as Euston serves the North-West. Are these facilities available at these two stations?

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, the facilities are not available at the moment. But the fact that Euston have now offered to provide facilities in their main information services enables us to hope that we shall be able to do something similar at St. Pancras and King's Cross.

§ Lord AVEBURY
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Soper, that the most acute part of the problem is homelessness. Will the noble Lord not advise authorities such as Lambeth, which are wickedly vandalising existing property, to desist from that while homelessness affects not only young people coming from elsewhere but young people who are becoming homeless within London itself.

§ The LORD PRIVY SEAL (Lord Peart)
My Lords, I think we should proceed to the next Question.

§ Lord WELLS-PESTELL
My Lords, we touched on this point the last time I raised this matter. We are not unmindful of what is going on in unoccupied buildings and dwelling-houses and so on. The noble Lord raised this matter recently and I have conveyed the information to my right honourable friend.