Julian Sturdy

The village of Dunnington launched its bid for glory in this years Britain in Bloom competition with an excellent fundraising event in the village on Saturday night which my wife and I attended. I have supported Dunnington in this competition for a number of years now and whish them all the best for this year’s competition and I look forward to helping out at the next working party.  The competition helps to bring together local people of all ages to get involved in their local communities. The village of Dunnington is a great example of this with a tremendous amount of effort going into making the village a place everyone feels proud to live in. The hard work paid dividend last summer when the village won Yorkshire in Bloom, let us hope they can go one better this year and win Britain in Bloom.     

Many of you will have read in the The York Press earlier this week about the shocking figures revealing that more than 1,000 people have been denied treatment by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust in 2007 following the introduction of its vetting panel. Following this shocking news I have written to the Chief Executive of North Yorkshire and York PCT calling for an urgent meeting to discuss these recent revelations.

In my letter to the Chief Executive, I have said:

“I am deeply concerned to learn about the large number of patients who have been refused treatment during 2007 by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust’s vetting panel. At the time your PCT set this up, there was great opposition from local GPs who felt this would restrict the service they could provide and caused great distress to patients.

“Given the impact this policy is having in North Yorkshire, and the large number of concerned residents who have contacted me on this matter in the York Outer area, I would very much welcome an opportunity to discuss this in greater detail with you. I feel it is important that we have clarity over this issue given the great concern over healthcare in North Yorkshire, and the fear from a number of quarters that we are ending up with a postcode lottery health care service in our region.

“I look forward to you response and very much hope that we can meet in the very near future to discuss my concerns further.”

One of the questions I want answering is when the Humber’s Strategic Health Authority is expected to end the year with a staggering £280 million surplus, why should patients in North Yorkshire still suffer from a postcard lottery health care service?

Last week David Cameron brought the Shadow Cabinet to Yorkshire. He met with his team at Bradford’s Great Victoria Hotel before they went out on visits across our County.

In York we had the great pleasure of hosting Chris Grayling who is the Shadow Secretary of State of Work and Pensions. We visited Haxby and Wigginton Youth and Community Association at the Oaken Grove Community Centre, following a tour round the centre we met with some of the trustees, before going on to meet with local pensioners. Chris discussed with them the problems facing pensioners at the moment and their concern’s for the future.

This is my second visit to the Community Centre in Haxby and I have to commend everyone involved in the centre for helping to provide such a fantastic facility for the local community, it is a credit to the dedication and devotion of everyone at the centre.    

I would like to sincerely thank all those who rallied around and supported my petition protesting against the proposed closure of Fulford Post Office.

The response to the petition, which called on Gordon Brown to halt the ongoing post office closure program and keep post offices like Fulford open, has been simply fantastic. This culminated in Fulford postmaster Aasif Rabbani and myself presenting it to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday January 16^th.

It was essential that we responded swiftly and demonstrated our strength and unity and the full extent of our outrage, anger and frustration at these closure plans. I believe the residents of Fulford and North Yorkshire have sent a strong message to Gordon Brown which shows we will not stand by and let these closures happen.

After presenting the petition to number 10 and following a couple of radio interviews we met up with Charles Hendry the Conservative Shadow minister with responsibilities for Post Offices, at this point the day had gone extremely well but sadly things were about to take a turn for the worst. We arrived at Kings Cross to catch our train back to find that a points failure just outside the station meant no trains were coming in, after standing on the platform for over three hours with hundreds of other frustrated people we final boarded a train and arrived back into York at one o’clock in the morning. However if we save Fulford Post Office it will have all been worth it.

Ellee Seymour travelled to Number 10 with us read more about the day on her blog.   

The public consultation period is drawing to a close on the proposed post office closures across North Yorkshire. Therefore I am travelling to London tomorrow to present the petition I have been running against the closure of the post office in Fulford to the Prime Minister’s office in 10 Downing Street. 

I will be accompanied by the Fulford post master Aasif Rabbani during the trip and we will deliver a clear and resounding message on behalf of the Fulford residents, that villagers need and deserve a post office to serve their needs.

Under this Government there has sadly been a gradual erosion of the sub-post office network and they are ignoring the vital social role they play in our local communities like Fulford.

I felt it was essential that we responded strongly showing the strength of public anger and frustration at these latest proposals and that is why I am taking the petition to 10 Downing Street. The support we have received for our campaign has been fantastic and I would like to thank all those people who have signed our petition.

I am absolutely appalled that the Government has encouraged developers to pursue a covert plan for 5,500 new homes on the edge of the historic city of York. To hear that York City Council has had no knowledge of this makes a mockery of the local Government process and all the work that has gone into the Local Development Framework by the Council

The Government seems prepared to ride roughshod over planning authorities and local communities to meet its own targets on building new homes. Further development in York has to be concentrated on our existing Brownfield sites to meet the future housing demand. 

A proposal of this type would have disastrous consequences for the local community and surrounding area. York?s green belt should be treasured for future generations, it is not something you can concrete over on a Government whim, and the impact on the already heavily congested Northern Ring Road would be just unimaginable.

Although this outrageous proposal is at a very early stage, and hopefully will never see the light of day, we must still fight to protect our green belt, to protect our existing village communities surrounding York.

Conservative Party Chairman Caroline Spelman visited York on Thursday. She had been earlier visiting Selby before coming to York where I took her to visit Fulford post office, one of the branches threatened with closure under the latest Government plans to close 2,500 Post Offices. We met with the local sub post master and a large number of local residents who are all backing my campaign to keep the post office open. You can also see The York Press?s video report on the visit here >>

I was delighted Caroline took the time out of her busy schedule to come and visit York and offer her support to our campaign to save Fulford post office from closure. It was also great to see so many local residents in the post office on Thursday afternoon all expressing their anger at the proposal, we have still got until the 17th of January to put our objections in writing to the post office.    

The Government has ordered the Post Office to close more than 2,500 branches across the country as part of a national review, in addition to the 4,000 post offices already closed since 1999. They are conducting the review in tranche’s across the Country and today it is the turn of North Yorkshire to hear its fate. Actually the York Press broke the story on Saturday however Tuesday the 27th of November is the day that the 50 post offices due for closure across our region (Yes 50) are officially announced. In the City of York four post offices have been ear marked for closure Clifton, Haxby Road, Micklegate and Fulford.     

I have to say I am appalled at these announced closures, there has sadly been a gradual erosion of the sub-post office network and the Government is ignoring the vital social role they play in our local communities. The truth is that the Government has pulled business out of the Post Office network and undermined its finances. It doesn?t seem to understand the social value of Post Offices to our communities, particularly the disabled, the elderly, those on low incomes, without transport and those in rural areas. We need to protect and support our local post offices as they provide a vital service to our communities, especially in the villages surrounding York. By reducing the services they provide, the Government is making it incredibly difficult for postmasters to make a living, putting vital community services under threat and ripping the heart out of village life.

It is vital that we respond strongly and in numbers to show the strength of public anger and frustration at these latest proposals. There will now be a standard six week consultation period closing on the 17th January (Extended due to the Christmas break by 10 days). This is our opportunity to convince the Government that our post offices must be saved. More information can be found at Post Watch or at your individual post office.  

I visited Fullford post office which has been earmarked for closure yesterday morning, and saw first hand the steady stream of people using this vital community facility, and speaking to local residents they told me how outraged they were about the proposed closure. 

I will be campaigning to keep Fulford post office open, as well as the other post offices earmarked for closure across York. The York Press are running a campaign that I am supporting, fighting the closures across North Yorkshire. Link to the petition.

This is not turning out to be a very good week for the Government and Gordon Brown as the Northern Rock crisis worsens, and a bungling Government department has lost 25 million people’s personal details in the post. It is now reported that this bungling Government department has been hit by more than 2,100 reported breaches in security in the last year, clearly indicating that ”Dicsgate” was not a one off and to make things worse they have now decided to write out to all 25 million people whose details have been lost to say sorry at our expense.

Public confidence in the Government is starting to drain away, Mr Darling was seen to be a safe pair of hands by Gordon Brown, that doesn’t say much for the rest of the Cabinet.

And to make matters worse England have failed to qualify for the Euro 2008, after a dismal display against Croatia last night.  

I have to also mention the politics show on BBC1 last Sunday, that saw the two Liberal Democrat Leadership contenders turn on one another as the shows host produced a document  that had come out of Chris Huhnes’ office, entitled Calamity Clegg criticising him for flip flopping on policy. What once had been such a dull leadership contest has suddenly turned into a fight night special, looking forward to round two. If you missed it click on Calamity Clegg to catch it again, well worth the watch.

I read in the York Press yesterday about the dramatic rise in hospital bed blocking at York Hospital, 6,735 bed days lost the equivalent to 18 beds blocked out of the hospitals 650. T he reason for the the delayed discharge which is having an impact on patient care across the hospital is due to the lack of adequate nursing home provision and the local authorities not being able to provide the relevant care needed.

As a society we are continuing to live longer, yet the provision of nursing homes and the funding for adequate care in the community is continually squeezed by local authorities under pressure form central Government. The situation will not improve unless action is taken, most elderly people want to return from hospital to the comfort of their own home as quickly as possible and this is what care in the community is meant to achieve. For elderly patients to be forced to remain in hospital because there are not enough carers or adequate funding available is not acceptable in today’s society. The cost of bed blocking to the NHS in financial terms and to patent care is huge especially at a time when our local PCT is in such financial difficulties and having to make cuts across the board, this situation will only make their position worse.