Save King George Hospital Campaign

The proposals by the local Health Authority to downgrade King George Hospital and close its Accident & Emergency facility are once again being challenged by local residents, local groups and local Councillors and MPs.

On Wednesday 18th there was a public meeting organised by Lee Scott MP at which over 100 people were in attendance. It would have been more but for the Area Committee 3 meeting on the same evening. On a show of hands Cllr Mrs Sladden got a 100% vote that the proposals are unacceptable. She has also written to all the GPs in the borough and they are 86% against the proposals. Which rather upstages the claim by the Health Authority that they are in favour as reported in the Recorder. We are grateful to our member Bill Howe who took minutes of the meeting, see here.

CORRECTION from Cllr Mrs Sladden: "It was 86% of the doctors I wrote to replied and 95% of these were not in favour of A & E closure and polyclinics and 5 % who were in favour of closure and polyclinics were GP 's that had been appointed as Directors of Polysystems."

On Thursday 19th our councillors debated the situation at Full Council. There’s nothing like an external threat to unite political parties in their resolve to fight these proposals. See report in WW Guardian here.

On Saturday 21st there was a protest outside King George Hospital organised by Wilson [megaphone] Chowdhry [far right]. It made it to the BBC News site.

On the Council Leaders blog there is a comment, reproduced in full below [these things have a habit of disappearing off that site].

Anyone even considering the downgrading or closure of King George Hospital and the removal of accident and emergency services in Redbridge is courting disaster on a major scale. Queens Hospital will not be able to cope – they can’t even cope now. Why don’t NHS London & Redbridge understand that there are far too many residents in Ilford alone and the removal of any medical services from the borough will put people’s lives at risk? We have noticed (reading the Ilford Recorder over the past 12 months) that every time an accident is reported upon, the ambulance crew have taken everyone to Queens even if the accident occurred in Ilford. Why?? Because someone in the Trust wants to manipulate statistics to suit their own end game, so any reports will show that A&E at King George’s isn’t being used but A&E at Queens is brimming over.
We are supposed to live in a Democracy (although the way Labour and Gordon Brown behave, we are fast becoming a country under dictatorship) the people of Redbridge have already campaigned and demonstrated against the closure of King George’s and/or reduction of A&E services. What doesn’t the Trust understand? How many times do we have to do this before they get the message? It is no different from the fiasco that was the Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The People vote No, but then they are made to vote again until the politicians get the answer they want. What a complete joke. If only Queens remains, then I hope the decision-makers have to use the “facilities” themselves – but I suspect they either live in a different borough, or use private healthcare. Should services at King George’s be reduced/removed in spite of all the opposition past & present, whoever is responsible for this will ultimately have our blood on their hands. I just hope they will be able to live with that on their consciences.

Of course if Redbridge council had used the government grant obtained to “improve” its website for something useful, like an e-petition facility we could all sign that. But since we haven’t got that you could leave your view in the comments below and/or drop an email to your MP and ward councillors to say you support their position. Links to contact details in the side bar.

Free Beer!

Two words guaranteed to get my attention. There is a parliamentary reception on Tuesday 8th December from 6-8pm in The Jubilee Room, Houses of Parliament hosted by David Drew MP with free beer donated by SIBA - the Society of Independent Brewers.

It is a Public event, it’s free and no booking is required. Expect a queue. It’s about:

A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT:

THE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT

The Sustainable Communities Act is an exciting new law that sets up a radical 'bottom up' process of governance. Come along and hear the latest developments:

* Hundreds of proposals for government action have already been put forward by Local Authorities under the Act,

* the government will be reporting to Parliament in December on the next set of Local Spending Reports (required under the Act), and

* the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill that will further extend the Act's powers to Local Authorities is currently in Parliament.

Details for the reception are as follows:

Chair: Tom Levitt MP - Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Community and Voluntary Sector

Speakers:

John Denham MP - Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government - INVITED

Oliver Letwin MP - Chairman of the Conservative Party Policy Review

Julia Goldsworthy MP - Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

David Drew MP - Sponsor of the Sustainable Communities Act

Ron Bailey - Local Works Organiser

Pavement Art

Now I don’t want to upstage our local art blogger but I couldn’t resist this photo on the theme of ‘you think it’s bad here’.

Photo credit: Westfield Wanderer via Dorothea.

Barkingside Posada

Posada is a Mexican tradition: an enactment of looking for lodging of St. Joseph and Virgin Mary, called The Pilgrims going to Bethlehem for the Census according to the Scriptures.

The Manna House (a Christian drop in centre at 33a Barkingside High Street) is again arranging for a Posada in Barkingside this year, 2009. Mary and Joseph plus other nativity figures will be seeking shelter in shops on Barkingside High Street and local churches.

Holy Trinity Church Mossford Green

3:00pm Sunday 29th November

After a short ecumenical service, attended by the Worshipful the Mayor of Redbridge and other Dignitaries, the posada figures will lead a 'Procession of Light' from Holy Trinity up the High Street to the “Inn” otherwise known as the New Fairlop Oak their first destination where there will be carols.

All are welcome to join in. Please bring a torch or lantern to light the path and symbolise our Lord as the light of the world. Or just bring a banner.

Full Panto

Next Thursday 19th November at 7:15pm Redbridge Councillors will gather in the woods Council Chamber for a picnic to debate all matters important to us residents. Here are the minutes in advance:

Blah, blah, waffle, hot air, waffle, more hot air, party insults, mumble mumble, whinge, pointy fingers, wind, phhrrrp, blah, blah, waffle. Stand up, sit down, vote, oops the electronic voting system doesn’t work, blah, blah, oh no we didn’t, oh yes you did, more wind and hot air, more party in jokes and insults, call for a fag break recess …….discussions in secret……reassemble, several councillors forget they’ve changed sides and sit in wrong chair, this chair is too small says one, stand up, sit down, blah blah, Buttons sends out search party for missing councillors, the Ugly sisters arrive late having been stuck in car park when their Jags turned into pumpkins, ……..repeat…..

Then we get to the important bit:

Three motions: scroll down to item 12 for full text. [Note: This is a part of the council website that predates “Redbridge-i” and still works.]

1. This one is about the failure of Newham Council to consult with Redbridge Council and Redbridge residents on the expansion of London City Airport and to investigate launching Legal Action against Newham Council.

2. This one is about the proposals for a substantial downgrading of medical facilities at King George Hospital, which is the only remaining general hospital in the borough.

3. This one condemns the Government proposals to take some £29 million of funding which puts London's Freedom Pass at risk.

This is followed by “Any Urgent Business” ie the pub; you will need a drink by then.

Handy Vans

… and while we are on the subject of local food, Riverford Home Delivery are a supplier of organic meat, fruit and vegetables who, as the name implies, deliver to your door. Except right now, for West Essex and Havering, they are one van short of a fleet. It got stolen in Hainault on Friday 13th November while the diver was out delivering.

The registration number is WG57 BKK and it has, or had, the Riverside name on the side of the door panel. If you spot it whilst out on your travels please do report it to the Police.

If you are a customer and missed your delivery on Friday, Nick and Alison apologise and confirm that next week’s deliveries will not be affected.

Get your Christmas Brussels here.

Now you would think that it is not beyond the ingenuity of manufacturers to design in a disabler whilst leaving the engine running for people who operate in this way.

The Shallow End

In the previous post we conclude that Redbridge Council has no alternative but to sell land to finance it’s Capital Programme and that, no doubt, will set alarm bells ringing in certain quarters – with visions of yet more housing creating yet more demand for services and amenities that the Council and other Authorities like Health are already finding some difficulty in providing. It’s a vicious circle.

However, housing is not the only use for land and it is not the only factor which could increase its value - there is a rather important commodity that needs land to be produced – Food.

Over on the Earth Policy Institute, Lester R Brown argues that the upcoming Copenhagen Conference is not about Climate Change, but all about Food Security.

The world rice harvest is particularly vulnerable to rising sea level. A World Bank map of Bangladesh shows that even a 3-foot rise in sea level would cover half of the riceland in this country of 160 million people. It would also inundate one third or more of the Mekong delta, which produces half of the rice in Viet Nam, the world’s number two rice exporter. And it would submerge parts of the 20 or so other rice-growing river deltas in Asia.

He goes on:

It is the disappearing glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau that are of most concern, because their ice melt sustains the flow of the major rivers of India and China––the Indus, Ganges, Yangtze, and Yellow rivers—during the dry season. This ice melt thus also sustains the irrigation systems that depend on these rivers.

China is the world’s leading producer of wheat. India is number two. (The United States is third.) In contrast to the United States, most wheat grown in China and India is irrigated. With rice, these two countries totally dominate the world harvest. The projected melting of these mountain glaciers in Asia represents the most massive threat to food security the world has ever seen.

So, if the sh*t hits the fan another scenario could be that Land values here increase because it can be used to produce an increasingly scarce and vital commodity – Food. Whether you accept Anthropogenic Global Warming or Man-made Climate Change is irrelevant. The fact is that the Glaciers are disappearing and if they go completely, we humans are in global trouble. We need to have a contingency plan not just to keep ourselves from freezing but also from starving.

One local resident, Matthew Oliver, is researching into whether allotment sites can be a resource for entire communities, rather than just the plotholders who have an allotment. I think they might need to be a bit bigger but let’s wish him success. Take a mo to complete his survey too, it’s for those who DON’T have an allotment.

The Deep End

Yesterday [Thursday] some 50 members of the Redbridge Swimmers Association met with the Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Leisure in the Town Hall Council Chamber. This was the meeting promised by the Leader shortly after he took that position in May. Here’s the report:

At the Cabinet meeting on 1st September [item 24] it was:

Resolved: That we (i) agree in principle, subject to resources being identified, to build a new Leisure and Library facility;
(ii) agree to identify the resources required to undertake a feasibility study to build a new leisure facility, which will include a 25m pool, learner pool, sports hall, fitness gym and library facilities; and
(iii) approve expenditure of £120,000 for professional fees for a feasibility study and outline designs and £50,000 ground and site investigation surveys.

The aim is for a facility similar to that recently built in Eltham. There are two potential locations: the existing site at Cricklefields and the Seven Kings Lorry Park. The feasibility study is underway and an option appraisal is expected a little way into 2010. The Cabinet are 100% committed to this project, but the practicalities have to be understood. £24million will be programmed into the Capital Programme for this project. This will show up in next year’s budget publication shortly.

That’s the good news. Now the bad news.
It’s gonna take a few years and the council don’t actually have a spare stash of Fivers to finance the Capital Programme, which will inevitably include much larger sums for the higher priority of new schools brought about by our burgeoning child population. What they have to do is to sell an asset [mostly land] in order to create a new asset, in this case a leisure centre or schools. In the short term we have a recession where land values have fallen so not a good time to sell. In the longer term what will happen when we run out of realisable assets?

That last question may need to be answered sooner than we might think. The credit card bill racked up by that nice Mr Darling and his predecessor is going to cause some unplanned financial ripples, well more like a Tsunami. You think Climate Change is scary, well Financial Change goes with it.

Last month the government announced that they were selling £16billion worth of assets to pay, get this, that months interest on the debt. But £11billion of that are assets owned by Local Councils. Redbridge Council may not have any assets left by the time they come to build anything! Somebody may have raided the larder.

There are all sorts of financial sleights of hand coming out of this government. All designed to place the increasing burden elsewhere and to shift the blame to someone else. Take this for example. The government have announced that they are to cut the funding for London’s Freedom Pass by £30million which will place the burden onto Local Councils and therefore the blame should they not be in a position to fund them.

These are just the beginnings of that Financial Tsunami. And a change of government is not going to stop it.

Barkingside Vision

A Vision for

Barkingside…

Officers in the Council’s Planning and Regeneration Service have been working with consultants to develop an Improvement Plan for Barkingside Town Centre. The consultants will soon be in a position to report on the issues arising through the consultation, and to produce a draft action plan. This will be reported to the Council’s Cabinet for final agreement in the New Year.

However before then, the Planning and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee will consider the consultation process, the issues arising and proposals at its next meeting. This Scrutiny Committee meeting provides an opportunity for local people to hear about what is being proposed, and to question the consultants and officers.

A display highlighting some of the issues and proposals will be available for viewing from 5.45pm.

Come and see the proposals for your town centre!

at the next meeting of the Council’s Planning and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee

Thursday 10 December from 6.30pm

Ilford County High School, Fremantle Rd, Barkingside

For more information on this meeting – 020 8708 2554 or email.

Photo credit.

Fairlop Service

Splendid turnout for the first Memorial Service to be held at Fairlop Waters. After the laying of wreaths, see the Ilford Recorder, a memorial tree was planted. Apologies for the poor quality photo. Will this now be an annual event? Our thanks to the Fairlop Heritage Group.
Elsewhere, we learn that Fairlop Waters gets a £95,000 grant from Natural England through Defra’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, to create a fully accessible path around the main lake as well as a cycling and pedestrian path to open up new access opposite Fairlop underground station.

Redbridge Birds

Guest post from Daniel Erickson-Hull, of Redbridge Birdwatching

October has certainly thrown up some real surprises..... But before we get onto October, there was an exciting late addition to September as a Black Eared Wheater was watched at lengh in Valentines Park on the 28th September by a fortunate observer, that took the years tally in the borough to 152 by the end of September! Not bad, considering that when I started this project in January, I hoped that we would find 150 by the end of the year!... Anyway, on with the October highlights.

Wildfowl:
Numbers of wintering Ducks are slowly building up with Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler and Pochard all being notably present now. Also up to 20 Little Grebe have been present in Wanstead Park, and up to 10 Little Grebe and 16 Great Crested Grebes have been at Fairlop, where 4 Black Necked Grebes put in a surpirse appearance on the 29th. The 2 Egyptian Geese at Valentines Park were spotted a few times throughout the month. Also over 100 Cormorants have been noted at Fairlop Waters, taking advantage of the fish stocks, this phenomenon I noted last October as well, and it continued into November, but by December the numbers had greatly reduced to the regular 'single figure' sightings.

Waders:
Lapwing - Up to 100 present in the flock at Fairlop, not nearly as many as usual by now, and less than last month! Green Sandpiper - Present throughout at Fairlop, with up to 8 being seen. Snipe - Present throughout at Fairlop, with up to 6 being seen. Jack Snipe - sighted at Fairlop on the 17th, 25th and 29th with 2 being seen on the 20th. Golden Plover - No sightings by the end of the month? Will they arrive during November? Little Egret - 2 @ Fairlop on the 30th, with none being reported on the Roding this month.

Birds of Prey:
Kestrel and Sparrowhawk numbers certainly seem to be up following a sucessfull breeding season. A Little Owl was seen on Wanstead Flats on the 4th, but no other raptors were reported during October.

Gulls:
Yes, you guessed it... Valentino the Mediterranean Gull reappeared for his 10th consecutive winter at Valentines Park, arriving on the 10th! On the same day, a Yellow Legged Gull was in the Gull flock on Wanstead Flats. And a Great Black Backed Gull was present at Fairlop Gravel Works on the 25th.

Migrating Passerines:
2 Rock Pipits passed through Fairlop Gravel Works on the 4th, which was rare enough for the borough, but not quite as impressive as the Red Throated Pipit that passed over Wanstead Flats on the 27th. The last Wheatears passed through Wanstead on the 13th, Fairlop on the 17th
A flock of over 50 Goldfinches were near Aldborough Farm on the 10th, when 92 Linnet were also present on the Gravel Works, and nearby fields, where over 100 were seen on the 17th too. Smaller numbers of Linnet passed through Wanstead Flats. Over 1000 Redwings passed over Wanstead Flats (120 on the 10th, 45 on the 11th, 530 on the 17th, 250 on the 28th and 60 on the 31st) with smaller numbers being present elsewhere in the borough. Large numbers of Wood Pigeons also passed through, particularly over Wanstead, along with smaller numbers of Fieldfare. 1 Lesser Redpoll flew over Wanstead Flats on the 11th, and 10 were feeding at Fairlop on the 27th. 10 Siskin was over Wanstead Flats on the 10th with single birds seen on the 18th and the 31st, also 3 were feeding at Fairlop on the 27th.

Other Birds:
17 Stock Dove were on Wanstead Flats on the 17th, with over 60 being at Fairlop on the same day, where smaller numbers were regularly seen. Ring Necked Parakeets decended on the borough from the 23rd with 30 being seen at Wanstead Park, with more seen the following day. 3 were also at Eagle Pond on the 29th, with 2 at Woodford Bridge the following day, when 5 were also seen again at Wanstead Park. Kingfishers were seen on the Roding near Woodford Bridge on the 1st, 7th, 11th, 19th, 22nd, and 30th, with 2 seen on the 12th. Another was seen at Fairlop Gravel Works on the 17th. Grey Wagtails continue to be increasingly reported, with good records coming in from Valentines Park, Fairlop Waters, Fairlop Gravel Works, Wanstead Flats, Wanstead Park, Seven Kings Water near Loxford, Roding Valley Park and Ilford County High School Grounds. Up to 20 Skylark were seen on Wanstead Flats, and over 70 on the fields around Hainault Road in Fairlop. A male Dartford Warbler presented on Wanstead Flats on the 31st and remained into November. Coal Tit numbers are up too, with a pair being seen in a Woodford Green garden on the 7th, a single bird in a (different) Gants Hill garden on the 24th, with another 2 being seen in a Wanstead Garden every day from 26th-30th, and yet another in Valentines Park on the 31st. Goldcrest were present in Ilford County High School, Wanstead Flats and Fairlop Waters, and several sightings of Chiffchaff remaining till the end of the month. Reed Buntings remain present at Fairlop, and Wanstead Flats. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was seen in South Woodford on the 22nd, near St. Aubyns School. Stonechats were seen regularly on Wanstead Flats, near Centre Road, and were also recorded at Fairlop.

[Phew! I bet you didn't know we had such a diverse community of birds - makes my Big Garden Birdwatch report look rubbish]

Commonwealth Green

Guest post from Caroline Mullen of Commonwealth Gardeners.

A lady called Kathy Taylor [pictured above] came for a short walk round the estate with me, and I'm very pleased to say she has agreed to come to our Commonwealth Gardeners meeting on Thursday 19th November. Kathy is a garden designer. She lives in Wanstead, is also an artist, and keeps an allotment. She will give an illustrated talk about front garden designs to suit the Commonwealth Estate, and will stay through the meeting to chat. Everybody's welcome. Please could you spread the word among your friends who may be interested. [Ed: Kathy has featured on this site before]. Kathy's website is here.

In other news, the Big Lunch people have confirmed that there will be another Big Lunch in July 2010, though they haven't organised themselves to sign people up yet. I'm keeping a watching brief, and I'll let you know when we can have more information. See the Big Lunch website to see what happened last year.

Just a reminder that the meeting is at The Fold Cafe, Cranbrook Baptist Church, Wellesley Road, and the meeting is 10:30am-12:30pm Thursday 19th November. Everyone is welcome. There is no fixed charge, but we will take our usual collection to fund ourselves, and on this occasion in addition will collect for donation to a Charity of Kathy's choice. Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

Ed: but not us because it clashes with our own coffee morning, but I feel an invite coming on for Kathy.

Local Warming

I picked up that phrase from a Councillor friend of mine down in Lewisham. Their Sustainable Development Committee has recommended a Free Insulation Scheme for homes across that borough.

'Local Warming: Increasing Home Insulation in Lewisham: a scrutiny review' click.

Unfortunately this is not something we can expect in Redbridge any time soon, or even later. We are skint! And my local Cabinet member tells me that next year’s government grant will be drastically reduced whatever the result of the General Election. We are graded as an affluent outer London borough you know! But it’s a double whammy! At the same time that income is being reduced the call on the Council’s budget on its biggest budget line is rapidly increasing. We have a serious projected shortage of school places due to the baby boom that occurred before the economic bubble burst. PDF page 7. And that’s after the schools that have recently been built and are in progress. Just where these extra needed schools will be provided, now that the council have approved housing developments in every nook and cranny in the south of the borough, is anybody’s guess. But I will make a suggestion – SHIFT WORKING. Dear Gary, you could treble capacity in one swoop and disperse the Mum run too!

I digress, back to Insulation. Since there is no propsect of getting an insulation grant, unless you are over 70, it looks like its gonna have to be a DIY job. So, for those who are not too familiar with the various materials available, their U-values and the practicalities, or otherwise, of installing it here is a handy guide from another mate in Reading who runs the Green Construction UK blog.

Redbridge Green

Last Wednesday at the Redbridge Sustainability Forum we had a report from Tom Lawrence, the borough’s Recycling Officer, and what a lovely report it was too. You all know that the government is obsessed with targets and local authorities have loads of them. There is a huge list of which one is N192.

The target this year [2009-10] for Redbridge is to recycle 27½% of household waste and next year [2010-11] 30%. As of now [today] we are currently running at 34%. This is largely due to the wonderful new Green Waste collection service introduced last April. The 34% breaks down to approximately 20% dry recycling [paper, glass and plastic bottles and tin cans] and 15% wet recycling [compost]. However, summer is now over and wet recycling will be a lot less during the winter. There will be a blip at Christmas with composting Christmas tress and dry recycling usually increases over this period too. So we are looking at a year end out-turn of about 30%. Jolly well done to all you recyclers out there. And there is more good news. The Green Waste sacks given out earlier this year only totaled 30,000. But they have just received another batch of 25,000 and are expecting another batch shortly. Every household [with a garden] will have one of these by next April.

There is a note of caution: Invasive weed species like Japanese Knotweed. The operatives are very careful not to introduce contamination into the compost cycle but it would be much easier if people didn’t put this stuff in the bags in the first place. Oh, and just in case you are wondering it all gets shredded before it goes to compost.

Which leads me to N195. In this target we want the percentages to go down and not up. The target for Litter is 16% and in periods 1 and 2 this year actuals were 18% and 17%. For Detritus [that’s the grime that accumulates in the kerbside] the target is 23% with out-turns for periods 1 and 2 being 29% and 23%. For Graffiti it’s 8% target and actuals of 11% and 10%. And lastly Fly-Posting the target is 2% with actuals at 1% and 2%. So, not so rosy here but getting there.

Save King George Hospital

In the light of the suggested closure of key services (such as the Accident and Emergency department) at King George Hospital, Lee Scott MP is campaigning once again to save and improve the hospital.

Lee invites you to attend a community meeting to discuss the closure and our future action. The panel will include Redbridge Council Leader Councillor Keith Prince.

Venue: Holiday Inn, Eastern Avenue, Newbury Park
Date: Wednesday 18th November 2009
Time: 7pm – 8:30pm

Note 1: this meeting clashes with the Area Committee 3 meeting so B21 is looking for someone to feed back on any actions that need to be taken and a report for this blog.

Note 2: there is a protest being organised by Wilson Chowdhry on Saturday 21st November 2009 outside the hospital entrance in Barley Lane from 12noon to 2pm. Details.