Labour re-elects winning team

Reading & District Labour Party Media Release  

8 May 2012

The first meeting of the Labour Group following the party’s success in the Borough elections has tonight re-elected Jo Lovelock as Leader and Tony Page as Deputy Leader, and kept the same Cabinet Members, although some changes have been made to some of their portfolios.

Jo Lovelock says: “With 26 out of the 46 Council seats, we have a solid mandate to push ahead with the programme on which we fought the elections, and the important thing now is to get down to work and deliver for local people.  We are keen to get on with our ‘Let’s Talk’ approach in communities across the town and making the changes that people want to see.  We know we are in tough times, but we have shown that we can stand up for local people, particularly those who are most in need of Council services, and we will be working hard to deliver what local people expect.”

The full Cabinet list is as follows:

Leader - Jo Lovelock

Deputy Leader

& Regeneration, Transport & Planning - Tony Page

Adult Social Care - Mike Orton

Community Engagement & Service Transformation - Jan Gavin

Culture & Sport - Marion Livingston

Education & Children’s Services - John Ennis

Environment & Climate Change - Paul Gittings

Health & Wellbeing - Bet Tickner

Neighbourhoods & Housing - Rachel Eden

How much is the NHS re-organisation costing? £3.45 billion!

Reading & District Labour Party Media Release  

22 April 2012

Bet Tickner : Lansley’s reorganisation cost the local NHS £25M last year, and it will be much the same this year

Berkshire West Primary Care Trust was made to set aside £25,375,804 in 2011-12, 2% of its budget, to pay for the costs of Andrew Lansley’s reorganisation of the NHS, and the same %age is going to be required in 2012-13, says Cllr. Bet Tickner, Labour’s Lead Councillor for Health, quoting from a Business Case leaked from the Department of Health.

The total cost across England comes to £3.45Billion, which is the figure Labour has always quoted and the Tories have always denied.

“This news comes at a time,” Cllr. Tickner says, “when more and more jobs are being lost from the NHS (there are 4096 fewer nurses than there were at the general election), when waiting times for operations are getting longer and longer and the 18-week maximum wait established by Labour is being broken more and more frequently, and when some types of operations are just no longer being carried out at all.   The last thing the NHS locally needs is £50M+ pinched from its budget over two years to pay for a reorganisation that nobody apart from Andrew Lansley wanted.”

“But of course the millionaires who got that big tax break from the budget will have no problems paying for private health care.”

Battle site medical centre a victim of NHS cutbacks

It has been confirmed by the local health authority that the much anticipated medical centre on the Battle Hospital site will not be built.  To say this is disappointing would be a massive understatement.  For years Battle residents have been waiting for the medical centre and it was something they decided they would like on the former hospital site after being consulted in 2005.

In a press release from NHS Berkshire, financial constraints were given as one of the reasons for abandoning their plans.  This is a very real demonstration of how the Tory/Lib Dem's plans for the NHS are effecting  the people of Reading already, before the highly damaging health bill is passed.  For example the number of patients on waiting lists for more than 18 weeks has risen 153 % in Berkshire West since May 2010.

Battle councillors believe the Primary care Trust (PCT) will sell off the land in West Village for further housing.  Battle councillor ChrisMaskell said: “This is a betrayal of the Oxford Road Community. In 2005 we held a series of public meetings and surveyed the entire ward to find out what people wanted to come from the redevelopment of the Battle Hospital site. The overwhelming response was that people wanted a medical centre to replace Battle Hospital. “

Battle councillor Gul Khan said: “This is a devastating blow to the Oxford Road Community. We believe the Coalition Government is “cleaning up” the NHS in preparation to sell off the profitable bits to the highest bidders wherever they may be in the world but only time will tell. However, what we do know is, cuts to the NHS are happening now even though the Coalition Government’s NHS reform bill has not yet passed into legislation. What the PCT is proposing is a disgrace.”

Here is the press release from Reading and District Labour Party about this weekend of action.  There will be a stall outside Battle Library from 10-1 tomorrow (Saturday 10 December 2011) and you can sign the petition to drop the bill here: