Daily Archives: 10 Feb 2017

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10 Feb 2017

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Accountability, Cranbrook, Developers/ Development, Sustainability

Cranbrook: Facebook page created to complain about problems with district heating

The page is called:

“Cranbrook District Heat by eon is Useless”

Although it is new, it has already attracted more than 50 members and E.on is said to be arranging a meeting on the subject.

A selection of comments (and remember this is an 80 year monopoly contract where developers collect fees):

“No hot water again in Brooks Warren. Called Eon and yes, rubbish customer services yet again. ” [E.on] We do not know of any problems, someone will be in contact within 24 hrs.”

“Just had a call from Eon to say there is a site issue (AGAIN). They are hoping to get everything up and running by the end of the day.
Yet again another problem and yet again we are all suffering with the lack of services.”

“Went to have a shower this morning around 11:00, yep you guessed it no hot water. Called e.on and they said they had no reports of problems, perhaps I’m the first to report I said. Absolutely useless, notice several others having problems on the other Cranbrook facebook page.”

“We had an Eon engineer over today. He told us that we should avoid peak times to use got water e.g. between 6am and 8am, and 6pm to 8pm. Apparently they should fix it in a week… They recognise it’s a Cranbrook wide issue.”

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10 Feb 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Scrutiny

Many councils expect to find themselves technically insolvent soon

Many councils fear that they will become technically insolvent. So what does ours do? Pursues a vanity project relocation from one HQ to an HQ with two satellite offices – one which needs a massive amount of money spent on it because estimates of cost were made before a full survey was done (Exmouth) and one that requires new build (Manstone) – all three when building costs are rising 20-35% coupled with a growing shortage of skilled labour which will push wages up.

Fiddling while Rome burns? Play that fiddle! 🎻

“Some local authorities may be forced to declare technical insolvency in the next two years, experts have said, as councils struggle to weather the financial pressures caused by budget cuts and growing demand for social care.

A survey of councils in England and Wales by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) thinktank found that three-quarters had little or no confidence in the sustainability of local government finances and more than one in 10 believed they were in danger of failing to meet legal requirements to deliver core services. …

… “Councils have no faith in the system. They are patching together their finances by putting up council tax, drawing down reserves and increasing charges. Increasingly they worry that they will not be able to provide the vital services that people rely on.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/10/councils-budget-cuts-social-care-bills

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10 Feb 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, EDDC, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Banana councils, the NHS and social care

“If Surrey’s ‘secret deal’ is to be a harbinger of a new health and care service then the whole murky world of local government funding needs rethinking.

The algebra is simple. The NHS is having another terrible winter. It does not collapse, but “spills demand” on to the next line of defence, local government welfare. But while the NHS gets more money annually from the Treasury, local government gets less, some 30% less since 2011. It cannot cope with the new pressure.

The equation resolves itself into rationing, by quantity and quality: fewer care places, fewer home visits and fewer district nurses leads to more bed-blocking, fewer operations, longer trolley waits.

Tory Surrey is a responsible supplier of post-hospital care. Like all councils, it is allowed by the Treasury to increase its council tax by 5%, specifically to boost its care budget and thus ease pressure on the NHS – which the Treasury is responsible for funding. Surrey county council regarded this as nothing like enough. It therefore activated its statutory right to hold a referendum on a 15% increase.

Far from showing delight at a wealthy council accepting this burden, the Tory government was appalled. Tories do not increase taxes. The chancellor (and Surrey MP) Philip Hammond duly did what Jeremy Corbyn called a secret deal. If Surrey abandoned its referendum and the 15% hike, it could retain revenue from a different tax – the local business rate, which normally went to the Treasury. That is, the Treasury would in effect spend more on health and care in Surrey, but secretly and, so far, just for Surrey.

This is the stuff of a banana republic. If Britain wants to spend more on health and elderly care, it should raise it and spend it honestly. Instead, the Treasury is running around its fiscal A&E department, staunching the flow of political blood by slamming on plasters wherever a patient screams or twists an arm.

Leaked Surrey council tax texts allow Corbyn to ambush May at PMQs
Some might argue that an NHS free at the point of delivery has had its day. New disciplines and incentives, through fees or insurance or more prevention, must constrain marginal demand. But for the time being, it makes no sense to squeeze the NHS at the top – where politicians are exposed – and dump its problems on to local government and different funding streams at the bottom. It wastes money and distorts priorities. It is illiterate public finance.

If Surrey is harbinger of a new health and care service, and business taxes are to relieve an ever-burgeoning NHS, so be it. But few places are as rich as Surrey. Revenue will have to be redistributed from rich to poor areas. In other words, it is not just the NHS that needs rethinking, but the whole murky world of local government finance.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/10/surrey-local-council-funding-health-care-nhs

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10 Feb 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Put a red line round your local hospital on 1 April

“COMMUNITIES across Devon will be putting a red line around each hospital in protest of their own red line to ‘no cuts to any health services anywhere in Devon.

The Success Regime is proposing large cuts to health services in Devon as part of its Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).

The STP proposes to cut 590 acute and community beds across Devon, cut nurses’ jobs and access to continuing care, cut acute services in North Devon and cut most of the remaining community hospitals.

Dave Clinch, North Devon media liaison for Save Our Hospitals Services, said: “They really believe when it comes to cuts, “there are no red lines”. They claim to be able to deliver a better health service at the same time as making cuts to the tune of £550 million in Devon alone.

“On April 1 communities across Devon will put a human red line around each and every hospital. This will be a visible statement of our own red line “No cuts to any health services anywhere in Devon.”

The demonstration at North Devon District Hospital will begin at midday on Saturday, April 1.

This comes after proposals of NHS cuts were leaked, which sought to tackle a projected £430 million funding shortfall in the region’s healthcare system by 2019.

In August 2016, more than 200 Barnstaple residents marched from Pilton Park to the district hospital, calling for the safeguarding of services at the hospital.

Those who took part called upon the Success Regime to ensure that acute services, such as A&E, maternity and stroke units, were protected from the cuts.

Speaking at the time, Angela Pedder, chief executive of the Success Regime, said: “We know local people care deeply about the services that Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust provides and we thank them for their continued support.

“However, we’ve been very clear that the NHS in Devon is facing both clinical and financial sustainability challenges.

“The challenges faced are set out in our Case for Change document and all health organisations in Northern, Eastern and Western Devon are working together to improve care, provide more integrated and locally tailored services, and tackle the projected £100 million a year overspend.

“The team has been working closely, as part of the Success regime programme, with NHS leaders and GPs, as well as local public and patient representatives, to develop proposals on future options for local health and care services.”

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/this-is-no-april-fool-communities-across-devon-to-put-red-line-around-local-hospitals/story-30126325-detail/story.html