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Daily Archives: 26 Jun 2017
“Doctors’ union accuses government of privatising NHS”
“Doctors have accused the government of “consciously” creating the crisis in NHS hospitals in order to pave the way for a private sector takeover.
Delegates at the British Medical Association’s annual representative meeting in Bournemouth voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion that they were told amounted to a verdict of conspiracy rather than incompetence.
It has prompted a row with the Department of Health, who said in an official statement that the motion had “no relationship with reality”.
Doctors agreed that “the crisis in NHS hospitals has been consciously created by the government, in order to accelerate its transformation plans for private sector takeover of healthcare in England”.
Proposing the motion, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the incoming chairman of the union, said that quality and safety in the NHS were threatened by demands for efficiency savings. He said: “NHS costs are rising at 4 per cent per annum but with only a 2 per cent annual uplift to the NHS budget in coming years something has to give and the reality is clear to doctors, patients, the public and indeed everyone except government.
“The general election was a wake-up call, rejecting the political pretence of trying to squeeze a quart into a pint. In the name of safety and quality, austerity and savage cuts have to stop. We are a rich nation, we are a civilised society, the public deserve a safe, civilised health service. We cannot and must not accept anything less.”
Dr Nagpaul said that legislation that forced health service commissioners to tender services, or GPs to send their patients to private treatment centres, proved “this is deliberate and it does need to be challenged”.
Dr Grant Ingrams, opposing the motion, asked the meeting: “Do you really believe this and preceding governments would be capable of such clear thinking?”
He said: “The current parlous state of the NHS has not been due to political conspiracy, but is due to political cock-ups.”
Dr Mark Porter, the outgoing chairman, said that while there was evidence of more use of private services within the NHS, albeit from a low base, “there is not the same evidence that this is a deliberate conspiracy”.
A BMA spokeswoman said: “The rise in the number of private providers has led to the fragmentation of care, which makes the delivery of high-quality care more difficult.
“Politicians need to urgently address the funding and staffing crisis in our NHS, otherwise services simply won’t be able to cope with rising demand.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “This motion sadly has no relationship with reality — while, of course, there are pressures on the frontline, the government is now spending more than any in history on the NHS, has left doctors themselves to decide on use of the private sector, and public satisfaction is now the highest it has been in all but three of the last 20 years.”
Separately, doctors expressed concern that patients were increasingly turning to crowdfunding to get appropriate wheelchairs.
Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, a 29-year-old junior doctor from London, had to fund her own chair after being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome two years ago.
She said: “The guidelines for getting chairs now are so strict, wheelchair services across the country are being privatised and it’s just getting harder and harder to get access.”
She said the standard NHS chair weighed around 20kg and she would have needed to be pushed everywhere. Her own £2,000 chair, towards which the NHS offered only £140 voucher, allows her to work full-time and independently.”
Source: The Times (paywall)
Islington wins landmark appeal on affordable housing
“Islington Council says it has won “a landmark case” after the Planning Inspectorate upheld the local authority’s refusal of planning permission for a site, on the grounds the application did not provide the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing.
The developer had applied to build 96 homes on a former Territorial Army Centre in Parkhurst Road, and initially sought to avoid providing any affordable housing.
Islington’s policy requires developments to provide the “maximum reasonable” amount of affordable housing, with 50% affordable housing provision being the starting point.
The council refused planning permission for the development on 13 May 2016. The developer appealed and eventually increased its offer of affordable housing to 10%.
A planning inspector dismissed the developer’s appeal last week (19 June).
Islington said the decision centred around how the viability of the development was assessed and, in particular, how the price of land should be determined.
“Viability appraisals are a tool increasingly used by developers and their viability consultants in recent years, to enhance profits and/or minimise risk at the expense of delivering affordable housing as required by the council’s planning policies on affordable housing,” it claimed.
“This extremely important appeal decision confirms a ‘…land owner is required to have regard to the requirements of planning policy and obligations in their expectations of land value.’”
The council also said that the inspector had considered the developer’s market value methodology, which relied on transactional evidence not comparable to the development site, as an inappropriate approach.
The inspector’s decision is just the latest stage in a long-running battle. An initial planning application for the site was submitted in 2013 by developers First Base, and the council refused planning permission for this development twice on the grounds of not providing enough affordable housing as well as other matters.
First Base had sought to justify the low levels of affordable housing provided based on factors such as the purchase price paid for the site, and land transactions of other schemes.
Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Housing & Development, said: “Islington, like all boroughs in London, faces a significant shortage of affordable homes.
“A viability process in planning that allows developers to rely on a flawed approach to market value that delivers little or no affordable housing makes this problem worse, and means developers are not making a fair contribution to the community.
“The decision from the Planning Inspectorate sends a strong signal that developers need to take into account planning policy requirements when bidding for land, and that they cannot overbid and seek to recover this money later through lower levels of affordable housing.”
Cllr Ward added: “This decision will ensure the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing is provided, and strongly discourage developers and landowners from manipulating the development viability process to deliver fewer affordable homes.”
The council’s guidance on development viability specifically cautions developers against overpaying for land and using the purchase price as a justification for providing little or no affordable housing.”
Former EDDC councillor tells MPs to do what she didn’t – promote local tourism
Mrs Kerridge is the former EDDC Tourism Champion … criticism is too little too late – as she was in a position to change the situation!
“Town councillor Sheila Kerridge said while visitor numbers are falling in Devon but are up 10 per cent in a decade in Yorkshire – where the budget is 100 times bigger.
She argued that Sir Hugo Swire needs to fight for more tourism cash for all of his constituency.
Cllr Kerridge, the former tourism champion at East Devon District Council (EDDC), told a meeting last week: “Devon only receives £45,000 per annum. Yorkshire receives £5million. I want this committee to do something about that – not just for Sidmouth but all of East Devon.
“We should lobby our MP to go to central government to say tourism is vital for the South West, vital for East Devon and vital for Sidmouth.
“Let’s get him to say we need more money. We want our share. We should lobby, lobby, lobby to get our fair share.”
Cllr Kerridge cited figures showing visitor numbers to Devon are down four per cent compared by 2006.
Her calls came after news Sidmouth Town Council had joined third sector tourism board Visit Devon as an early adopter after its relaunch.
Town clerk Christopher Holland said: “We are one of the first councils to get on board with Visit Devon. It can be moulded to how we want it – we don’t want it just to be for Torbay or the English Riviera. We can promote what we want to promote.
“Visit Devon is a good brand but Devon is far behind Cornwall in how we promote ourselves as a destination. We need people to turn off the M5 before they get to Cornwall.”
Cllr Simon Pollentine said: “EDDC have dropped East Devon as a brand by not investing in it. This council is continuing to invest in tourism promotion and they aren’t.”
Cllr Ian Barlow questioned if it was value for money and said £1,000 could buy a lot of promoted posts on Facebook and Twitter.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/calls-for-fairer-tourism-funding-for-east-devon-1-5078588g
Fly outbreak in Feniton
Fly outbreak in Feniton ( from the blog of Independent Councillor Susie Bond:
“I’ve just heard from the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) who has been looking into the most recent problem with flies in the village. She has responded directly to the seven residents who have contacted her office.
It looks as though the poultry farm on Green Lane was the source of the flies, despite the farmer having complied with the larvicide regime.
Environmental Health Officers currently think that the combination of young birds in the sheds and the extreme temperatures last week led to the fly problem.
Further treatments have been carried out at the farm to reduce the number of flies.
The EHOs request that people monitor the fly levels and update her directly (lturner@eastdevon.gov.uk).”
For the full report see:
https://susiebond.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/latest-on-fly-outbreak-in-feniton/
Greendale Business Park 120% expansion plan – battle for who really controls East Devon planning policy and an EDA councillor excluded from meetings about his own area.
document to support the already approved “East Devon Local Plan.”
The Owners proposal is approx. 120% more development beyond the present developed area. The various coloured outlines show the proposed
development areas.
“East Devon District Council recently asked local people about a planning
The Local Authorities proposal for Greendale Business Park. “No further expansion beyond the present permitted developments already permitted”
The Owners version published in a document called the “Greendale Masterplan” which is included in the published consultation documents.
This proposal, known as the “Villages Plan,” will provide planning guidance until 2031 for the larger villages in East Devon and two large industrial sites of Hill Barton and Greendale.
The Villages Plan is not yet approved but the owners FWS Carter and Sons have submitted a “masterplan” proposing a massive 120% expansion to their site. There is considerable local concern that further expansion at Greendale Business Park will now continue.
The company`s agents have submitted a multitude of documents to support their claim for continued expansion and in a bid to overcome possible objections have re-introduced a “liaison group” which they claim is:
“To provide better lines of communication and wider understanding”
A few years ago, following a great many complaints, contentious planning applications and planning appeals the owners of the Business Park were asked by the County Council to invite Planning, Environmental Officers and locally elected representatives to form a liaison group.
This was a success for a few years, but was disbanded by the management 18 months ago, however they held a liaison meeting on Wednesday June 21st at their offices.
There is local concern over who the owners invited to attend.
There was no invitation for members of the Residents Association, Woodbury Parish Council were restricted by the company who named two Councillors they wished to attend. Most controversially the “Terms of Reference” was changed by removing the word “Local” from “Local Elected Member of the District Council” and the invitation was sent to Conservative Budleigh Town and District Councillor Tom Wright but not the current ward member.
The local ward Councillor Geoff Jung (EDA Independent) who is also the secretary of the Residents Association and a Parish Councillor says:
“This is not the normal practice for a “Liaison Group”, but the company has the right to invite whoever they wish to these meetings.”
“It`s totally “legal” but it`s certainly not democratic, I am unable to represent people as a member of Residents Association, nor as a Parish Councillor, nor as a District Councillor”. “I now have the most bizarre situation that I must direct residents with local concerns to the new Chair of this Liaison Group, Conservative Exmouth Town and recently elected Local County Councillor Mr Richard Scott.”
“It`s standard practice that a District Councillor represents his own ward at Liaison meetings and this requires the approval of the District Council. Cllr Wright has ignored this protocol and attended but, I am very pleased to hear that planning officers from the District Council will not attend the meetings until my inclusion is agreed.”
“There are serious local concerns regarding the recently submitted “Greendale Masterplan” and I suspect that the re-introduction of this Local Liaison Group is to do with these expansionist plans”
The Planning History.
Thirty years ago, the business park was a farm with some agricultural buildings which the owners claimed to be “redundant for farming use” They were given permission to be converted to Industrial units. More agricultural buildings were built and again allowed to become Industrial. Many of planning applications were “retrospective” (Built or converted prior to Planning Permission being submitted.
In 2009 the Business Park was permitted to enlarge to its present size as an “Exception Site to the then Local Plan” This was because the East Devon Business Forum (chaired by disgraced Conservative Councillor Graham Brown who boasted to a daily Telegraph “sting” reporter that he could provide approval for planning for a fee). The Forum claimed there was an acute lack of Industrial land available within the district.
Steadily the owners have built a very large Business Park in the open Countryside which was never the local planning authorities policy.
The residents of the rural village of Woodbury Salterton consider that any further expansion will destroy their beautiful village set in the open countryside, and for the last 10 years have campaigned for better planning protection.
The Local Authority with their recently approved Local Plan decided on the location for housing and commercial land, and agreeing with the village residents that further expansion of Greendale Business Park would not be appropriate or suitable.
The Local Plan is a blueprint for district planning until 2031 and includes policies for commercial and industrial developments to be built close to urban settlements. Substantial commercial opportunities exist at Cranbrook, Exeter Airport and on land known as the West End (on the outskirts of Exeter). This is to follow the Government`s planning policy that people should not be required to commute far from their homes to a place of work.
The village community, through their Residents Association, their Parish, District and County Councillors have strived for a sensible balance of development and the proposals included in the Local Plan and the emerging Village Plan are a direct result of 10 years of hard work of campaigning and lobbying.
Councillor Geoff Jung says:
“The decisions for both the Local Plan and the Villages Plan were decided democratically and agreed by full Council and by a Government Planning Inspector. The owners of Greendale must not be allowed to bulldoze further and further into the countryside.”
And to add insult to injuries in the UK : the sixth richest country in the world
“Ambulances are set to be given far longer to reach 999 calls in a controversial bid to ease spiralling pressures on emergency services.
Handlers could be given four times as long to assess calls after a study of 10 million calls found too many cases being counted as hitting official targets, without patients getting the help they need. …”
(Source: Daily Telegraph)
and
“Patients would be turned away from GP surgeries when they get too busy, under plans to create a “black-alert” system for overstretched family doctors.
Under the proposals, which have the support of the Royal College of GPs, surgeries would be able to shut their doors on days when they believe they cannot provide safe care to any more people. …”
Source: The Times (paywall)
and
“More people are unhappy with the NHS than satisfied for the first time in a poll of the public run by Britain’s doctors, and 70% say they think the health service is going in the wrong direction.
The growing public concern will be revealed by Dr Mark Porter, leader of the British Medical Association, who will tell his annual representative meeting in Bournemouth on Monday that the government is “trying to keep the health service running on nothing but fumes”. …”
Expensive new HQ and luxury apartments for rich elderly people or good-quality social housing? Tough choice for EDDC
Sidmouth resident Mike Temple has the lead letter in today’s Guardian on social housing. Our council is MUCH more interested in moving into its very expensive new offices (£10 million and counting) than building, or encouraging the building of, social and truly affordable housing. As shown when it agreed to sell its Knowle site to PegasusLife for super-luxury housing for only rich, elderly people, with PegasusLife attempting to exploit a loophole via a planning appeal to avoid any on-site or off-site affordable properties.
“The fire at Grenfell Tower has highlighted a number of issues relating to government housing policy in recent years, not only the failure to apply proper safety measures but also its whole approach to social housing.
The 2012 national planning policy framework, often described as a “developers’ charter”, has given precedence to expensive private development while discouraging social housing. The result is that through land-banking, slow build-out rates and using the housing market as an investment, house prices have risen way beyond the reach of most average-wage earners. At the same time, an increasing proportion of the incomes of the lower paid is spent on rented accommodation, which is often of poor quality.
Among the 72 Conservative MP landlords who voted against the 2016 housing bill to make “rented properties fit for human habitation” were the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, housing minister Brandon Lewis (who has also said installing fire-sprinklers could discourage house-building), fire minister Nick Hurd, and David Cameron.
Official Statistics on social housing show that since 2010 the number of government-funded houses for social rent has plummeted by 97%.
Gavin Barwell, until recently housing minister and author of a white paper that offered proposals to ease development while doing little to promote social housing, has – like the government he serves – failed to act on the recommendations in the report on the fire at Lakanal House in 2009. Like previous Conservative minsters he preferred light-touch regulation so that warnings have been ignored at national and local government level.
The result is a system that has failed to protect our citizens – cost-cutting and reckless decisions were made with little fear of anyone being held responsible.
Mike Temple
Sidmouth, Devon”
East Devon Watch 