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Education Latest News Parking Planning St Paul

Westgate All Through School Proposal: Ward Councillors’ response to the Planning Application

For your information (not least because Hampshire County Council doesn’t put submissions on its website), our response to the planning application for Westgate School.


Executive Summary

While the architecture of the new school buildings is of a high standard – irresponsibly inadequate attention has been given to the traffic, transport  and safety issues arising from 420 new primary pupils attending the expanded Westgate School; and the proposed relocation of the nursery school.  Planning permission for the new school buildings should be withheld until there is a clear plan, with timetable and budget, for investing in transport infrastructure in the vicinity of the school in order to create a safer environment around the school with new measures to reduce congestion and increase safety in and around Cheriton Road and to make it easier for the majority of the 4-16 year old pupils to walk for some or all of their journey to school or – for the older pupils – to cycle.

The current planning application is not in accordance with paragraph 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) that ‘plans should protect and exploit opportunities for the use of sustainable transport modes …[and] should be …designed where practical to give priority to pedestrian and cycle movements’.    Nor is it in accordance with Policy T5 in the Winchester District Local Plan Review (2006) or CP21 in the Winchester District Local Plan Part 1 – Joint Core Strategy.   The creation of 420 new school places is a major development and the planning application currently itemizes little or no investment in off-site highway improvements including new and improved pedestrian and cycling facilities.  In addition the application is not in accordance with the West Fulflood & Orams Arbour Neighbourhood Design Statement (NDS), published in 2008.

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Conference Latest News NHS

Lib Dem Conference rejects the health bill

Reacting to the Liberal Democrat conference to remove support for the NHS Bill from the ‘Shirley Williams’ motion, Martin Tod, who spoke against the Bill, said:

Whatever the leadership of the Liberal Democrats decide, the core issue remains: despite all the improvements made, they can’t even sell the bill to their own members, let alone the professions and the wider public.

The Government should drop the bill, go back to the coalition agreement and work with health professionals to come back with a bill that deserves support.

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Health Latest News

Winchester Lib Dem NHS Amendment goes through

Good news from Lib Dem conference. The Winchester Lib Dem-backed motion on the coalition’s NHS plans was carried overwhelmingly.

Attached is the press release, I’ve just printed/sent out on behalf of the Social Liberal Forum.


MEDIA RELEASE

EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE

Nick Clegg must now deliver the changes in NHS policy that the Lib Dems have demanded – Harris

Responding to the overwhelming vote which called for amendments to be made to the Health Bill going through Parliament to get rid of the marketization and enhance accountability, Dr Evan Harris, who drafted the amendment, said:

“It is now incumbent on Nick and his ministerial team to deliver the major changes to the Government’s Health Policy and the significant amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill that the Liberal Democrats have overwhelming called for.

“Because the health reforms were not in the coalition agreement, today’s vote is the only view expressed by the party on the subject, and sends a very clear message through the minister and our leader to their Conservative Coalition partners that we will not accept market reform of the health service, any fragmentation or destabilisation of NHS services by new private providers or the lack of accountability for the spending of public money envisaged in the model of GP commissioning promoted in the bill.”

The onus is now on the Government to respond fully to the democratically expressed views of the Liberal Democrats.”

ENDS

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Health Latest News

Winchester Liberal Democrats take leading role in ‘rebellion’ against coalition NHS policy

Winchester Liberal Democrats have joined the ‘rebellion’ against the coalition government’s NHS policies recently reported in the Guardian.

This sets them directly in opposition to their local coalition partner, Conservative MP for Winchester, Steve Brine MP, who is a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Health and Social Welfare Bill in the House of Commons – one of the small group of MPs  responsible for line-by-line scrutiny of the bill – who has, so far, voiced no criticism of the Government’s plans.

The Chair of Winchester Liberal Democrats, Graham Winyard, is a former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England and Medical Director of the NHS:

I have seen first hand the huge disruption that this sort of reorganisation causes. Imposing massive and flawed reforms on an NHS facing years of level funding is extremely risky. I still find it hard to believe that Ministers think this is remotely achievable without damaging the very services they wish to improve.

The local party has put its name behind  an amendment to a motion proposed by Minister for Health, Paul Burstow MP, at the party’s Spring Conference in Sheffield this coming weekend.  The changes sought include:

  • an end to the proposed secrecy about the spending of NHS funds, as can take place with the proposed GP consortia
  • the complete ruling out of any competition based on price to prevent loss-leading corporate providers under-cutting NHS tariffs, and to ensure that healthcare providers only “compete” on quality of care
  • keeping the NHS as the preferred provider, only allowing new private providers where there is no risk of “cherry-picking” which would destabilise or undermine the existing NHS service relied upon for emergencies and complex cases, and where the needs of equity, research and training are met
  • NHS commissioning being retained as a entirely public function in full compliance with the Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information laws, using the skills and experience of existing NHS staff rather than the sub-contracting of commissioning to private companies
  • The continued separation of the commissioning and provision of services to prevent conflicts of interests
  • An NHS, responsive to patients needs, based on co-operation rather than competition, and which promotes quality and equity not the market

Martin Tod, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Winchester in the 2010 General Election has also backed the amendment and has sent a joint email with Dr Evan Harris, former MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, to over 1,000 former Parliamentary Candidates, Parliamentarians and local Party Chairs asking them to back the amendment.

Mr Tod commented:

There’s little or no evidence to back the Government’s NHS plans and a whole lot of unanswered questions. How will the enormous cost of reorganisation be borne without cutting front-line services? How can the new organisations running the NHS be held accountable when they can meet in secret and may not have to answer questions from the public? How will they stop cherry-picking of easy cases which could put the future of our local hospitals at risk? Is the Government prepared to put measures in place that will block NHS privatisation by stealth?Andrew Lansley, the Conservative Secretary of State for Health, is making bland promises while putting in place policies which could wreck the NHS as we know it.  It’s vital that these plans are changed.

 


Contact:

Martin Tod, 07887 986048, martin@martintod.org.uk

Dr Graham Winyard, 07867 538262, grahamwinyard@gmail.com

Dr Evan Harris, 07867 538896, drevanharris@gmail.com

Notes:

The Guardian report is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/04/liberal-democrats-rebels-nick-clegg-nhs-reforms (Liberal Democrat rebels to challenge Clegg over ‘damaging’ NHS reforms).

Details of the Public Bill Committee reviewing the Health and Social Welfare Bill are at http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/Health-white-paper/health-social-care/Pages/Public-Bill-Committee.aspx

The amendment reads:

Conference recognises however that all of the above policies and aspirations can be achieved without adopting the damaging and unjustified market-based approach that is proposed.

Conference therefore reaffirms existing Liberal Democrat health and localism policies which call for healthcare commissioning to be carried out by locally elected health boards or local authorities, with the ability to vary a fair local tax in order to invest in local healthcare services;

Conference regrets that some of the proposed reforms have never been Liberal Democrat policy, did not feature in our manifesto or in the Coalition agreement, which instead called for an end to large-scale top-down reorganisations.

Conference therefore calls on Liberal Democrats in Parliament to seek to amend the Health bill to provide for

  1. more democratically accountable commissioning
  2. a much greater degree of co-terminosity between local authorities and commissioning areas
  3. no decision about the spending of NHS funds to be made in private and without proper consultation, as can take place by the proposed GP consortia
  4. the complete ruling out of any competition based on price to prevent loss-leading corporate providers under-cutting NHS tariffs, and to ensure that healthcare providers “compete” on quality of care
  5. the restoration of the NHS as the preferred provider, only allowing new private providers where there is no risk of “cherry-picking” which would destabilise or undermine the existing NHS service relied upon for emergencies and complex cases, and where the needs of equity, research and training are met
  6. NHS commissioning being retained as a entirely public function in full compliance with the Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information laws, using the skills and experience of existing NHS staff rather than the sub-contracting of commissioning to private companies
  7. The continued separation of the commissioning and provision of services to prevent conflicts of interests
  8. An NHS, responsive to patients needs, based on co-operation rather than competition, and which promotes quality and equity not the market

 

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Latest News

We need to do more to make Winchester disability friendly

Last Wednesday, Martin Tod used a wheelchair to accompany local wheelchair user, Andy Cadle-Mills around town to try and understand what it’s like to use a wheelchair in Winchester.

Learning about wheelchair access in Winchester
Martin Tod learns about using a wheelchair inWinchester from Andy & Jane Cadle-Mills

“I was surprised how tough it was” commented Mr Tod after the session was over. “Winchester has a lot of steep curbs, pavements with sharp cambers and uneven surfaces – and that’s before you even consider how steep it is to get from the bottom to the top of town.”

This was the latest of a series of visits that Mr Tod has done alongside people with with disabilities to try and understand how we can make Winchester more disability friendly.

Mr Tod added “After an hour I was worn out. Winchester is hilly, the surfaces are uneven, and it’s not always possible for blue-badge holders to get to a convenient place to get out of their car. It’s been said that Winchester is the worst place in Hampshire for wheelchair users. I can’t judge whether that’s true, but it’s clear we need to do more.”

Ideas for action that Mr Tod discussed with Mr Cadle-Mills included:

  • Moving to level pedestrian crossings – instead of dropping kerbs
  • Flattening surfaces and removing obstacles such as the dropped drain by Middle Brook Street market
  • More central Blue Badge parking spaces to enable people to get to their destination without tiring journeys up and down hill
  • Scrapping charges for blue-badge holders, or having clearer signs on the Brooks Centre car-park to make it clear that it’s one of the only two car parks in Winchester that charge blue-badge holders to park.