I AM writing in response to the letter written by the Welcoming Aston Fields resident.

Firstly I would like to state that the Aston Fields Resident Association (AFRA) is not against Foyer projects, however the proposed development has no management plan or named support provider in place.

I, like this resident was totally open minded and non-judgemental about the residents that the Foyer would be housing. This was until I attended a meeting run by West Mercia Housing (WMH) and Bromsgrove District Council (BDC). They couldn't guarantee that it would not house people with drug and alcohol related problems or that the residents may cause anti-social behaviour in the area.

Several residents from AFRA have visited a number of Foyer projects across the country from Grimsby to Portsmouth. They have been built in non-residential areas. One Foyer project opened and after many problems had all its residents evicted, it has been claimed. I would like to know which successful Foyer projects you have visited.

A young man who has lived in a Foyer approached AFRA and spoke at a public meeting about his experience and claimed he was exposed to drugs and crime in a Foyer. Whilst it provided a roof over his head he maintained he did not experience being supported or supervised.

An extensive amount of research has been done by the AFRA in order for us to reach the conclusion that this project would be better being built elsewhere. There are a huge number of charitable people who object to this development in Aston Fields who have worked extremely hard to research and learn about the Foyer. Perhaps it is you who is judging and stereotyping us.

A Coronation Terrace Resident Aston Fields

  • We have received a considerable postbag of letters relating to this project in the past few weeks. Unfortunately we haven’t the space to use them all in print. Thank you for taking the time to send your views in, and we will be doing our best to get the other correspondence on this matter onto our website very shortly.

EDITOR