We Love the NHS

Nick Raynsford and Clive Efford at Queen Elizabeth Hospital

I was proud to attend two events in the last few days  to celebrate the NHS and stand up for it against the onslaught of the Tory-led Government’s Health and Social Care Bill.

On Saturday morning Labour held a street stall outside M&S on Old Dover Road,  getting messages of support for the campaign against the Bill. There was a slightly more formal event at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday (Valentine’s Day), where the staff were presented with a Valentine’s card by local MPs Clive Efford and Nick Raynsford, and a big crowd of wellwishers, to show how much the NHS is valued by local people, as well as their MPs. 

Labour's Street Stall at Old Dover Road

A lot has been said about the Bill. My favourite comment of all is from a local GP, speaking at a public meeting at Mycenae House organised by the Labour Party last year. He said the reforms “combined the worst aspects of pre-revolutionary France, seventeenth century England and Stalinist Russia.” Which would be a very funny line in the Monty Python mould, were the very future of the NHS not at stake.

I don’t suppose he has changed his views since, given that more and more professional NHS bodies have weighed in against the “reforms” proposed, which looks increasingly like back-door privatisation.

The really telling thing is not the views of doctors or politicians, but patients. At the stall at Old Dover Road on Saturday people queued up to write their own messages about why they love the NHS, and wish to save it (you can read the messages at http://www.ilovethenhs.org.uk/sample-page/). The cuts are already biting: in Greenwich, the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment has risen by a shocking 150% since May 2011.

Thank You to Blackheath Westcombe

To all the people of Greenwich and Woolwich who have seen a regenerated Borough, a stronger NHS, safer streets, improved public transport and the cutting of carbon emissions,and who believed in Nick’s pledge for: more jobs locally, better educational standards, an even better NHS, continued Improvements to neighbourhood policing, and further action to tackle climate change, there was a simple act from the re-elected MP last Saturday 22nd May, 2010 at the Royal Standard in the Blackheath Westcombe ward of the Constituency to show appreciation.

‘Thank You’, two simple words that bring a smile to anyone’s face.

It was a joy looking at the faces of people on the streets that morning going from one of bewilderment to surprise, then a broad smile when they are handed the letter from Nick, and they get to know that it was not asking for their votes this time, but just to aknowledge and appreciate their recognition of a hard-working MP who’s always been near his people and who works in the interest of the borough that he’s been given the mandate to represent for 18 years!

One needs to just go through Woolwich to see some of the regeneration…that Nick won by a 10000+ margin is testimony in itself to the interest of the people he has at heart! So really, he could just have taken what was rightly his due, and not been there that morning at the Royal Standard…BUT, that is the difference between an MP who is forever near his people, not just when he needs their votes, but one who genuinely respects his constituents!

These are difficult times, and whilst we in Greenwich and Woolwich are lucky to have returned our Labour MP, and a Labour Council, we need to remember that their continued success depends on our co-operation.
It is really up to us, the good people of Greenwich and Woolwich to assist our MP, and Council to keep the re-generation of our community in track…Let’s all give our Councillors a hand and ensure that Greenwich and Woolwich remains the Royal Borough ,

and a great place to work and live!!

Pat Boadu-Darko

New or Old Dover Road?

David, Pat, Nick Raynsford and I visited the windows of Blackheath library last week – the library is not due to reopen until April 26th so we could not go inside, but we could clearly see through the windows the transformation that has gone on inside with new shelving, lighting, décor and ceilings.

The much-cherished shopping parade on Old Dover Road (which is owned by Greenwich Council) has been something of a political football locally for the last four years. An unpopular rent increase in 2006 – albeit much less than first feared – was followed by a rent freeze in 2009, which will last until at least 2012. The much loved greengrocers, cafes and butchers have survived the economic downturn though I am sure it has not been easy. The reopening of the library will help, as will the council’s current review of parking rules on Old Dover Road – currently parking spaces are a free-for-all, which mean that they often get filled early in the morning by long-stay parking meaning no space for shoppers during the day.

The rent freeze did not just happen by accident, or because residents and traders asked for it – though the campaign for one was a big factor, the Labour council was able to deliver the freeze because it had created a “Economic Initiatives Fund” of £1.6m when the economic downturn stated, to shield council services from the downturn and the likely reduction in rent, council tax and fee income. In my own area of expertise, planning, planning application fees have decreased markedly.

This fund allowed the council to hold down fees, freeze council tax, and freeze shop rents on many parades including Old Dover Road. The Conservative Group on Greenwich Council voted to cut the fund by 20%, which would have made a freeze in shop rents on Old Dover Road impossible, or at very least very difficult to afford. The Tories locally are now calling for a temporary rent cut for shops to compensate for the temporary closure of the library which has reduced footfall – a rent cut which would have to be followed by a steep rent increase under the Tories’ plans, given that they had already opposed the budget provision that allowed rents to be frozen here in the first place. The question came up at a very successful hustings meeting the Westcombe Society organised on Saturday night, and I did not hear any clear explanation of why the Tories voted to cut support for the traders here, and then claimed to be on their side.

Labour has bold plans for the Royal Standard area – not just to review parking rules, freeze shop rents and improve the library, but also to rejuvenate paving, making the area easier for pedestrians and cyclists and make it into a worthy “second town centre” for Blackheath (the Standard has always played second fiddle to Blackheath Village ) that everyone living locally can be proud of.

It is a pity that Transport for London have , for the foreseeable future at least, announced that they are unwilling to fund such an overhaul. The council is looking at some smaller-scale changes it can fund from its own resources, and in the longer term we will fight for a better deal for the Standard. In recent years Blackheath Village has been transformed with new paving, better street furniture and so on, and it is high time the Standard gets a similar makeover.