It was appalling to discover that Midland Heart emailed Northampton Borough councillors criticising me for this petition.  One of the more unpleasant aspects of this matter has been the insidious undermining of those people defending the Hope Centre, with no recognition given to the important services it has delivered over many years. 

The best response to Midland Heart will be to make sure that this petition gets the widest circulation and the most signatures possible. 

Midland Heart said in its email it wanted to "address the online petition and political campaign being run by a patron of the Hope Centre" . On the day that the rough sleepers count revealed that the numbers of people sleeping rough in Northampton reached record levels, it is not political to campaign to keep the homelessness centre open.