B.U.C. had troubled history

Press, 25 August 1986, Page 8

B.U.C. had troubled history

By

COLIN WARREN

in Westport

Friday’s fire which gutted the Buller Unemployment Centre and killed at least three people, will not rid the town of the 8.U.C., says a former director and spokesman, Mr Mike Duff.

“The townspeople are also aware that the B.U.C. is more than a building, and that’s what worries some of them,” he said yesterday. The Buller Unemployment Centre was set up five years ago under the supervision of a trust which comprised professional people, a member of the Buller Trades Council (Robin Smith), and four unemployed people headed by Mr Duff.

A lawyer, Mr Dave Porteous, was its chairman and others were an accountant, Mr Peter Rosselli, and a high school principal, Mr David Nightingale. The trust was needed to handle Government grants as an employing agency. The membership

changed. Mr Porteous was the first to resign, when he left Westport.

Mr Duff took over in 1982 and held the dual post of centre director and chairman of the trust At that stage the old Keystores building in the main shopping area was being developed as the focal point of B.U.C. activities.

At first things went well and there was some enthusiasm for the centre, but local attitudes turned sour when it was realised that the B.U.C. was attracting what some Westport people called an “undesirable element” to the town. About this time the centre appeared to change its role. It became more interested in social work and as. a result the Internal Affairs Department withdrew funding for the director and his assistant.

In 1984, the new Mayor of Westport, Mr Pat O’Dea made it plain that he did not like the direction the B.U.C. was taking. Its membership in-

creased and appeared larger than the 100 on its books. Projects that the B.U.C. attempted either failed to get off the ground, or were roundly criticised.

The centre had little money, and little prospect of finding work for its members.

“If the B.U.C. does not look after these people, who will?” Mr Duff once “Send them back from where they came,” was the reply from part of the Westport community.

As the centre’s finances dwindled, it found it more difficult to offer help to the people turning up at its doorstep. It criticised the Borough Council and the Government for not doing more for the homeless.

According to the B.U.C.’s public relations spokesman, Mr Peter Luske, that criticism stung the council and the Government.

"People don’t mind the unemployed as long as they can hide them under the carpet,” he said.

When the B.U.C. announced last year that it was organising a Govern-ment-sponsored national unemployment conference at Westport, to which it was inviting several thousand people, many Westport residents were alarmed. Relations between the police, council, and the B.U.C. were so bad that an urgent conference between the three parties was convened. It was agreed that two councillors would liaise with the B.U.C. and the police would attend the"sessions. The conference, in August, came and went with only 200 people turning up. Most delegates were well behaved. But when Mr Duff invited a group of Wellington street kids to stay on (a first group visited in August, 1985) local alarm increased again and there were confrontations.

There were also reports of heavy drinking and marijuana smoking at the centre. Mr Luske blames the B.U.C. membership for last year’s troubles.

“They failed to take action against the troublemakers,” he said.

“If we are to survive we must have good discipline and that was lacking in August, 1985. Whereas visiting footballers can piddle in doorways no sweat, it is big trouble for us.”

Then there was a noticeable change at the 8.U.C., with open days for the public, art exhibitions and workshops in weaving, pottery and other crafts.

Alcohol and smoking were banned and a play group was organised for a small group of Maori and pakeha children. However, the council was still concerned about the state of the building and alterations that were made without approval. Someone smashed the front plate-glass window to the centre one night The centre put up barricades that made the building, with its high fence and tower at theback, look more like a fort than a drop-in centre for the unemployed.