Hatfield Town Centre meeting

As I said last week, the Welwyn Hatfield Times report on the town centre redevelopment has deeply alarmed the shopkeepers and local residents who I have been talking to in recent days.

As a result of this, and to enable local people to contribute to a discussion on what happens now, I have arranged a public meeting, to which I have invited town centre shopkeepers, local residents, the Borough Council's chief executive and the director of St Modwen, the town centre developer.

The meeting will be at the Lord William Cecil Memorial Hall, French Horn Lane, Hatfield, at 7.00 p.m. on Friday 16 May.

I hope that local residents will come along for I hope will be a positive meeting.

Hatfield Town Centre

According to the Welwyn Hatfield Times, the redevelopment of Hatfield Town Centre "has been put on hold indefinitely." Three issues immediately arise from this:

1. This is a dreadful shock for local residents. The town centre features boarded up shops that would never be allowed in Welwyn Garden City. Why does the Borough Council care so little about Hatfield that the town centre can be in such a sorry state.


2. Why did the news leak out at 1 p.m. on election day? Why does the Borough Council website still say (on May 3) that "Hatfield Town Centre Redevelopment is progressing well." Why have they still not issued a press release? If the news had been released just two days earlier, the Welwyn Hatfield Times could have covered the story and local residents would have been aware of the Tory Council's incompetence when they voted. The timing is shameful.


3. When Labour lost its majority on the Council in 2002, the town centre redevelopment plans were progressing well. Under the Tories, we have seen delay, more delay and further delay. Any one of these delays might be excusable. But, put together, they demonstrate again that the Tory Council simply does not care about Hatfield Town Centre.

Welwyn Hatfield Election results

The election results for Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council were as disappointing as the national results for Labour. In particular, though, it was disappointing to see hard working Councillors losing their seats after giving many years of good service to the community. I am sure that they will be back.

In the light of the results, however, it was a pleasure to spend Saturday morning at the Hatfield Farmers Market where I managed to get mildly sunburnt! I always find it useful to talk to local residents about their concerns.

How else, other than listening to the voters, can politicians learn. At least, that's my view. Sadly, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties were principally notable for their absence.

Sir Frederic Osborn School

As with my previous visits to local schools, it was a pleasure to meet and talk to over 100 sixth formers at Sir Frederic Osborn School in Welwyn Garden City today. As before, I was particularly impressed with the questioning and the strong views of the students, and by their willingness to engage in debate.

One of the points I regularly make when talking to schools is that they are the future of Britain, and it is in their interests to have their say in what sort of society we should be.

Conservative health spending plans

According to the front page of the Times, the Conservatives would spend an extra £28 billion on the NHS if they were successful at the next general election. Except that Andrew Lansley MP says that they have made "no public spending commitment." Who's Andrew Lansley? He's the Conservative front bench health spokesman. And the man whose interview led the Times to report the £28 billion spending promise.

Given that, presumably, the Conservatives can't find £28 billion without increasing public spending, perhaps they should make up their minds about what their policy is. Personally, I think the public deserve better.

Update: that said, perhaps we can believe him when he says that the public don't "completely trust the Conservatives." After all, he's just exemplified the reason why people don't politicians!

Letter published in the Welwyn Hatfield Review

Because the Review does not publish letters online, I repeat the letter published in the last edition:

Anne Wells of the hospital union staff-side deserves to be taken seriously when she says that hospital staff are fed up with uncertainty and want to move forwards to a new hospital structure in the East of Hertfordshire.

But just as deserving of certainty are local residents. Throughout the whole of the Primary Care Trust’s consultation on the issue of hospital location, there was insufficient information on what NHS services would be provided if we lost acute services from the QEII hospital. Even now, with the main decision apparently taken, local people still face uncertainty about what the Primary Care Trust is offering us.

There is talk of £750,000 for local transport initiatives like a shuttle bus – but no detail on its route or frequency. We do not yet know if the new £30 million Local General Hospital will be at the QEII, the former ambulance station or at another location in Welwyn Garden City or Hatfield. We do not know if patients referred by their GPs to the Hospital will be seen by consultants from Lister or by experienced GPs. There is talk of a possible midwife-led birthing unit, but no promise of a decision for several years.

This uncertainty is unhelpful. The Primary Care Trust must make it a priority to talk to local residents, to GPs and to patient groups and to the Borough Council about detailed plans for NHS care in the borough. We know very well what the Primary Care Trust is taking away, but far too little about what we might have in return.

NHS officials may not want a delay caused by a judicial review. But no one can accept a delay caused by a continued absence of detail. From my discussions with local GPs, even they feel uninvolved with this planning. The Primary Care Trust has not done a good job for Welwyn Hatfield over the last year – pulling out of the Hatfield Healthy Living Centres scheme, dropping Hatfield Hospital and bodging the consultation. If they want to start to win back local respect, they have to be open with the detail of their plans for our health care.

Specifically, what are their plans for health promotion in the borough, particularly in the poorer areas like central Hatfield and Peartree where health problems are greatest? Who will oversee the new health campus, and how will GPs and consultants be involved? How can they give improved and more local access to the NHS to the residents of whichever town does not get the Local General Hospital? It is time for the Primary Care Trust to tell us.

Mike Hobday

Record police numbers in Hertfordshire

According to figures just released by Hertfordshire Police, police numbers have reached record levels in Hertfordshire, with the county having 2,198 officers in September 2007. At the same time we also had 248 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) – a 50% increase since September 2006.

Hertfordshire may be a relatively safe area to live, but Labour's commitment to policing should help to keep it so.

Conservatives withdraw support for health group

In a bizarre decision, the majority Conservative group at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has withdrawn officer support for its health working group. The decision means that the working group will no longer officially exist and that councillors on the cross-party group will have to prepare and circulate their own agendas, minutes and reports, as well as organise their own meetings.

With even Liberal Democrat Councillors saying that the Government has given the Borough Council a "large settlement", only one conclusion is possible - local health care is not important to the Tories.

This is not just a shocking decision, it is short sighted. The Primary Care Trust is still deciding what health care we will have with the "slimmed down" QEII. Now, more than ever, the Borough Council should be playing a leading role in determining a view on what health provision local residents need.

Holocaust Memorial Day in Hatfield

Holocaust Memorial Day was marked in Hatfield this year with short readings and personal accounts of the Holocaust, prayers and the release of symbolic Black Balloons with attached messages of peace. As last year, it was a deeply moving experience.

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the commemoration of the day on January 27, when the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was finally liberated. But, even today, ongoing genocide is still a concern around the world, and we need to continue to work to prevent it and to stop it.

A monologue

To my utter shock, someone has written a monologue, partly about me! In fact, I'm mentioned in it seven times. It should be read in the style of Marriott Edgar's monologue, The Lion and Albert.

Background: the monologue refers to my oversight of the League Against Cruel Sports' successful prosecution of Tony Wright for breach of the Hunting Act and his successful appeal against conviction. Rather sadly, the monologue does not mention the next stage, namely the CPS appeal against the acquittal. Perhaps there'll be a few more verses to follow!

To Judicidically Review or not to ...

Following the decision by the East/North Herts Primary Care Trust to move acute care from the QEII to the Lister Hospital, a debate has started about the merits or otherwise of a judicial review application against the decision.

The argument in favour is this: the consultation was flawed - the County Council Scrutiny Committee discovered this, even if it let down local residents by not making a complaint about it. The Primary Care Trust abandoned the Hatfield Hospital option, without properly considering it. The cross-party Hospital SOS campaign has a reasoned opinion criticising the process, and this may or may not be sufficient to force the Primary Care Trust to think again.

But some criticise this. Retired (but not retiring) Conservative Councillor Dennis Lewis wrote to the Welwyn Hatfield Times to say that "a judicial review will achieve nothing but undesirable delay, which will feed the uncertainty which has bedevilled our health planning for the past decade." Strictly, of course, this is not true. The NHS has significantly more money than it did when the consultation started, and who is to say that a proper consultation would not produce a more sensible result, namely the more expensive Hatfield Hospital option that medical opinion favoured?

More pertinently, Anne Wells, who chairs the hospital trade union "staff side" writes to the paper to say that "we fail to see what a judicial review would achieve, apart from delaying the process and upsetting the staff even more."

There is a strong case for judicial review: that a flawed consultation led to a poor result for local residents. But it will be expensive - probably at least £50,000 - which will have to be raised locally. And it will extend the delay that I have roundly criticised before. What do you think?

Lister to be East Herts major hospital

Following a campaign lasting over a year to prevent the downgtrading of QEII hospital, the East and North Herts Primary Care Trust spent ten minutes deciding to "bring acute hospital services for east and north Hertfordshire together at the Lister hospital in Stevenage."

As I have made clear many times on this bloog and elsewhere, this was the wrong decision. It was badly made after a poor consultation. It was reiterated at the meeting that the public preference was for a major hospital in Welwyn Hatfield. In terms of letters, questionnaires and petitions, our case won out. But the Primary Care Trust were having none of it. They heard the various presentations, bizarrely telling them how good the consultation process was, and then spent ten minutes deciding against us.

So what does the Primary Care Trust plan now? Welwyn Garden City is to have a "local general hospital providing outpatient, diagnostic and minor treatments" and "an urgent care centre, which will care for about 65% of people who go to A&E at the moment."

County Council lets us down over hospital consultation

At a meeting on Wednesday, the County Council's Health Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Primary Care Trust's hospital consultation. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2001, if the County Council thinks that the consultation process is flawed, it has the power to refer it to the Secretary of State for Health.

Unsurprisingly, the scrutiny committee decided that the consultation process was flawed.

And then it decided not to refer it.

This is the statement I have issued to the press:

"The County Council has stabbed local people in the back, reversing its previous support for the Hatfield Hospital option. It has acknowledged that the Primary Care Trust provided insufficient evidence for its reasons for rejecting Hatfield Hospital, yet it chose not to refer the inadequacy of the consultation process to the Secretary of State. It has explicitly accepted as legitimate a flawed and inadequate consultation process. The County Council has failed in its responsibility to ensure that health consultations are properly conducted.

But, despite this setback, the campaign to keep a major hospital in Welwyn Hatfield will continue. The final decision has not been taken yet."

Stanborough School

I was enormously impressed, talking last week, to 120 sixth formers at Stanborough School. I'm not sure how well my talk went down, but the quality of the questioning in response was very impressive.

One of the great pleasures of being a Parliamentary candidate is talking to young people in local schools, and understanding their concerns and aspirations.

It's seven-eight years now since, as the local County Councillor, I played a part in the transfer of Sir John Newsom School into Stanborough, and it seems to me, talking to teachers, that this was a success.

So the election is off this year

So no election this year! I must say I am disappointed. I love campaigning, and the pre-election adrenaline has been going strong.

Still, there's a plus side. Another few months or more to meet local residnmets, understand their aspirations and concerns, and to take up issues on their behalf!

Hospital petition presented

Over 35,000 signatures were today handed into the Primary Care Trust in support of the local cross-party campaign to keep a major hospital in Welwyn Hatfield. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition and, especially, to those who spent longhours collecting them.

The medical case says that the best option for our health is the Hatfield Hospital option, I believe that it is best for the NHS. Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield are certainly the best options in terms of accessibility - with links along both the A1(M) and the A414.

Now, we will have to see what the Primary Care Trust says!

Back from Labour Party Conference

I always enjoy Labour Party Conference, meeting up with old friends and debating every issue under the sun morning, afternoon and evening. I've now found it's different when you're a Parliamentary Candidate, however. And the difference is that there are so many Ministers to lobby about this or that local issue. Basically, less time for me and more for my potential constituents. A sign of the times to come, I hope!

Parties unite on hospital consultation response

Congratulations to all three political groups on the Borough Council for combining to agree a joint response to the consultation by the Primary Care Trust into its plans for hospital services in the east of Hertfordshire. As the Welwyn Hatfield Times reports, the parties joined forces over common concerns about the disregard of the promised superhospital in Hatfield and the future of the QE2. All parties agreed in wishing to keep WGC's QE2 as the acute hospital for the area, if the Hatfield option is a non-starter.

Visit to Auschwitz

The trustees who run the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau do a terrific job in trying to portray the unthinkable events that happened at these extermination camps during the early 1940s

As I have said before, such evil is beyond comprehension. Even visiting the memorial sites, and looking at the piles of children's clothes or the piles of spectacles, it is hard to visualise what happened.

I read Krystyna Zywulska's I Survived Auschwitz while I was in Poland and her book, about her experiences in Auschwitz, makes the horror personal.

We have a duty to ensure that such events do not happen again.

Political co-operation - is it possible?

Occasionally, politicians of different political parties manage to work together for the common good. While the Conservatives vigorously opposed the national mimum wage, they now accept it as being in the best interests of the country. Locally, in Welwyn Hatfield, all politicians are united in supporting the view that Welwyn Hatfield needs a major hospital.

What any such co-operation needs, however, is a degree of mutual trust. I have not, for example, added the Conservative logo to this website, and claimed Tory support for my criticism of the Conservative Council. If any local Conservatives did oppose, for example, the decision of our Conservative County Council to close New Briars School in Hatfield, then that is a matter for them, and I would not claim their endorsement for a wider campaign against Conservative education policy.

Which is why it is very disappointing - and more than a little dishonest - for Grant Shapps to decide on his own account to add the Labour Party logo to his personal No Way 10K website. I agree that the inspectors who recommended 10,000 extra homes in Welwyn Hatfield, entirely out of the blue, and with no supporting research, evidence or analysis, were going beyond what is reasonable. The local council supported 5,800 extra homes, and new evidence should be acquired, analysed and debated before this figure is increased.

But accepting my support for that view is very different to claiming Labour Party endorsement for a party political website that makes extravagant and inaccurate claims against the Labour Government. For the record, any campaign against too many homes for Welwyn Hatfield will certainly not be a cross-party campaign, while the Labour Party's name and logo are taken in vain.

Kaleidoscope Festival

This year's Kaleidoscope Festival was, by all accounts, the biggest and best yet.

It seems to me, having knocked on doors across Welwyn Hatfield for the Labour Party over twenty years, that the amount of racism you meet on the doorstep is steadily declining. If so, then one of the factors is the Kaleidoscope Festival and the many volunteers who create every year such an excellent and enjoyable celebration of the cultural mix of our community.

Congratulations to all involved for their hard work.

Labour publishes newsletter

The Labour Party is producing a newsletter for delivery across the constituency. In case you don't get yours immediately, I am placing a copy here. Both files below are JPGs, and you can right-click on them to download or view the newsletter.

PS: Anyone who wants to help Labour deliver the newsletter in your street (volunteers always welcome!) please contact me - thanks.

Congratulations to Harriet Harman

Congratulations to Harriet Harman MP on being elected Labour's deputy leader. She is a good friend of the Welwyn Hatfield Labour Party and will be an excellent deputy to Gordon Brown. I look forward to her return visit to the area.

Hospital consultation starts

The consultation has started, and everyone now has the opportunity to get their point of view across.

It's not just about numbers - we need to explain why we need a local major hospital, whether at Hatfield or at the QEII. Key links are here:

Consultation pages at the Primary Care Trust website
Full consultatuion documents and technical papers
Consultation document (response form only)
Online resposne form

Public meetings:
Tuesday 3 July, 7.30 Lord William Cecil Memorial Hall, 1 French Horn Lane, Hatfield
Wed 18 July, 7.30m, Stanborough School Hall, Lemsford Lane, Welwyn Garden City

Make sure you have your say!

Labour Deputy leadership elections

Labour's deputy leadership election campaign trail came to Hatfield last week, with a hustings meeting for representatives of each candidate.

Thanks to Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell MP for representing Alan Johnson MP, Richard Howitt our MEP representing Hilary Benn MP, Andy Love MP representing Peter Hain MP, former Cambridge MP Anne Campbell representing Harriet Harman MP and to local members Tony Wilder and Cathy Watson representing Hazel Blears MP and Jon Cruddas MP respectively.

And congratulations to Harriet Harman for winning our local vote. Obviously pays to have been here before!

Sunday's rally

An amazing 2,00 or so people attaned the Hospital SOS rally in Sunday. And this was before the Primary Care Trust's consultation proposals unveiled. If they are bad news, how many more people would march then?

A really positive sign about the commitment of the people of Welwyn Hatfield to the NHS in the borough. I was very proud.

[Photo credit: Peter Domican LRPS]

QEII/Lister/Hatfield hospital consultation announcement

Latest news: the consultation will finally be announced Tuesday morning. All the more reason to come to the rally!

NHS Rally, June 10

I'll be attending the Hospital SOS public rally at the King George V Playing Fields, Welwyn Garden City at 1 p.m. on Sunday 10 June, and I hope that all readers of this blog will too! With the long promised consultation surely imminent, we need to make the strength of local opinion very clear.

And hasn't the consultation been a long time coming! Back in November, when the unelected officials at the East & North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust announced their decision to go back on the promised new Hatfield Hospital, I don't think anyone dreamt that we we would still be hanging on in limbo over six months later.

An optimist might hope that the delay has been caused by PCT officials wanting time to draw up a fully costed consultation document, showing local residents all the options and allowing them to come to an informed view about how their local NHS should be run. I wish we could trust them that much, but increasingly I fear we cannot.

As I've said before, "NHS managers need to recognise that the public are more than just interested bystanders. We own the NHS. It is ours, and our views should be sought out and listened to."

Gordon Brown for Prime Minister

I am supporting Gordon Brown's campaign to be leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.

I am doing so for two reasons.

Firstly, I support his underlying beliefs of, Gordon said in his speech announcing his candidacy, fairness and opportunity for all. I joined the Labour Party because our society then (1983) and now does not provide fairness and opportunity for all. It is easy for the privileged and for the chidren of propserous families to make a good start in their lives - and I am pleased that this is so. But this good fortune does not extend to all. Not every child in Welwyn Hatfield has the opportunities that they should have. As he said in his speech today, "These are for me the best of British values: responsibilities required in return for rights; fairness not just for some but all who earn it."

Secondly, his competence. After 18 years of Conservative Government, a period that witnessed two major recessions and interest rates as high as 15%, Gordon Brown has been an excellent Chancellor of the Exchequer. Over the last ten years, we have seen growing employment, increased propserity and low inflation. We are a better off country now than we were in 1997, and I believe that this is due in significant measure to Gordon Brown.

Welwyn Hatfield Council Election Results

Congratulations to all successful candidates for Welwyn Hatfield Council, and commiserations to those who lost their seats. In particular, I would pay tribute to Mike Larkins who had served local people continuously for 24 years. Thanks too, to Labour Councillors Alf Appleby and Alan Johnson who retired after long and good service of their constituents and the people of Hertfordshire.

Clearly, the results were not good ones for Labour. That said, despite the threat to local hospital services, and the Labour Party's poor showing in the national opinion polls, we held three of our five seats, and only lost the fourth by two votes.

Labour Councillors are meeting this evening, and will be looking at what they can do to represent local people in the face of what continues to be a pretty incompetent Borough Council.

The local Labour Party, too, needs to step up its work, and I will be pleased to play a part in that.

Update: Hatfield Town Council election results.
Slightly better results for Labour in the Town Council elections. Despite the loss of the Hatfield South Borough Council seat, Labour's popular local Councillor Linda Mendez topped the poll for the Town Council. In the Hatfield Central seat (Labour held marginal in the Borough Council), Labour's Colin Croft, Sheila Jones and Margaret White were more comfortably elected. Not surprisingly, the Town Council remains under Conservative control.

So why vote Labour in Welwyn Hatfield?

With the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council elections on May 3, it is important for everyone to vote for their local Councillor. Hopefully, your candidates will be knocking on your door and delivering leaflets about themselves and their policies (I know I;ve been doing a lot recently!). But just in case your Labour leaflet doesn't arrive as promptly as it should, I thought I'd list the reasons why I believe that voting Labour and against the Tory Borough Council is a good idea.


Firstly, the Tories are tough on pensioners. In April this year, our Tory run Council will increase its charges to local residents. Pensioners will have to pay:
· over 22% more to use lunch clubs;
· 10% more for meals on wheels;
· 50% more for the Shopper Hopper bus;
· And, if a loved one dies, cemetery fees are going up by around 80%.


Secondly, the Tories are still desperate for a council housing sell off. Despite being forced by tenants’ protests to cancel their last attempt to sell tenants’ homes from under them, the Tories are still privatisation-mad!
· They plan to spend over £150,000 this year alone employing consultants to look at ways to sell off council homes;
· Despite 95% satisfaction with the council’s housing repairs service, the Tories are desperate to sell off the maintenance workers’ jobs; and
· The Tories are taking £500,000 of rent income and using it to subsidise their other money-wasting—refusing to use it to build new homes.

Thirdly, the Tories waste your money:
· The Council’s favourite contractor, SERCO, pays a peppercorn rent for the Borough Council’s own depot at Tewin Road in Welwyn Garden City, yet the Council pays £200,000 to rent some of it back!
· The Council is planning to spend over £300,000 on private consultants next year—are they unable to recruit qualified staff?
· Council tax is due to rise by 4.5% this year—even though the Council received £7.7 million from the Government—16% higher than last year.
· Following a Labour campaign, the Council had to do a u-turn and drop its plans to introduce and charge you for an expensive parking scheme.
· The Tory Council pays Finesse leisure £500,000 a year to do up the King George V pavilion in Welwyn Garden City—yet the pavilion is rarely open!

HospitalSOS

It is never easy for politicians of different parties to get together for a common cause. Even here in Welwyn Hatfield where there is such a big issue as the desire of the officials at the East & North Herts NHS Trust to betray the promise made to our former Labour MP, Melanie Johnson, even here, it can sometimes be difficult.

This month's Hatfield Farmers Market, for example, saw all three political parties petitioning on the hospital issue. Rather cheekily, the Conservatives had turned up, covered in blue rosettes, under the supposedly cross-party Hospital SOS banner as if they had exclusive rights to the words "official campaign."

In the midst of the election campaign, on Thursday evening, leaders of the three political parties met to discuss the hospital campaign. It is a tribute to the other parties, too, that we continue to find positive ways to work together on the issues we agree on, while respecting our differences. We have set a date for a major rally, and agreed a whole series of actions to boost and promote the campaign to ensure that Welwyn Hatfield has the very best hospital services.

Hope not hate

This fortnight marks Hope not Hate week, the campaign supported by Searchlight magazine and a number of trade unions.

There are people who think that the racism of the British National Party should be ignored, that it will go away if given no profile. Evidence around the country suggests that this is not the case. The argument against racism has to be taken on and won. Details of the truth about the BNP available here.

Echoing the name of the campaign, I believe in hope for all of our society. Where we have problems, we should tackle them together. Hatred is no way to build a better society.

New Briars School campaign

These are some of the children from New Briars School, campaigning (on a very windy day) to save their school.

They are tearing up mock £20 notes to symbolise the £800,000 that Tory run Herts County Council is spending on the closure of the school.

It's bad enough that local Conservatives are complicit in closing a popular and successful school.

They are now cutting spending at other schools in the area in order to find the money to waste closing New Briars.

Figures:
Tory cuts to local schools (figures from WH Times) £840,000
Tory wastage on closure of New Briars £800,000

So the big question is: what are they spending the £40,000 they've saved on?

Good luck to everyone associated with New Briars when they appeal to the independent Hertfordshire School organisation Committee next Thursday!

Fix up our neighbourhoods - online!

A new website, Neighbourhood Fix-It, promises to allow us to report problems to the local Council online. Graffiti, unlit lampposts, abandoned beds, broken glass on a cycle path; anything like that can be reported.

What it offers, in particular, is the ability for all of us to see (anonymously) what other people have complained about, and whether the problem has been resolved.

I think this is a brilliant idea, and should be given plenty of use!

Congratulations to My Society for the development of the site and to Recess Monkey for publicising it!

Waste - recycle, bury, burn?

Hertfordshire's County, District and Borough Councils are consulting on a new waste strategy for the County. Despite recent increases in recycling, most of our waste is still sent to landfill sites, and these are running out of space.

Rightly, I believe, the last Conservative Government introduced a landfill tax to encourage local councils to recycle, although this had little impact until Labour started (apparently controversially) increasing the rate of the tax to provide a real incentive to local councils. Suddenly, recycling has taken off. The change over the period 1997-2005 when I was a County Councillor in Welwyn Garden City saw major changes, although changes in public attitudes probably had as much impact as Government tax changes.

But, back to the consultation. I would urge local residents to follow the link and fill in the survey. It does two things, one well, one very poorly. Firstly, it asks for views about recycling - how much our councils should do to help and encourage us to recycle. Secondly, it asks about what we should do with the waste that cannot be recycled. Here's the problem. The problems with incineration are under-stated and the survey itself merely asks whether it is important to "turn waste into energy" as if this was an environmentally neutral or even positive thing.

As I've said before, I've worked hard to promote recycling and to oppose an incinerator in Hertfordshire. Whatever your views are, fill in the survey!

Saturday Rally and Tuesday public meeting

In the past few days, I have spoken to public events with over 200 people, all of them rightly concerned about the potential changes in local hospital provision. This is a summary of what I said:

There are good and bad things happening in the local NHS at the moment. Ten years ago, waiting lists nationally were well over one million. Many people waited well over a year for vital operations such as hip replacements or cataract operations. Cancer patients regularly failed to get to see the consultant for weeks after being told by their GP that they might have cancer.

There has been massive improvement. Waiting lists have been slashed. The maximum wait on the in-patient list is down from 18 months to six months. Cancer deaths have been cut by an estimated 50,000 since 1996; heart disease deaths by 150,000; we have whole new services like NHS direct and the new walk-in centres.

And this has happened because the Government has invested much larger amounts of money in the NHS. It has happened because there are more doctors and nurses - over 75,000 more nurses and over 25,000 more doctors working in the NHS than in 1997. And it has happened because new drugs, expensive drugs, are providing better treatment. The NHS in Hertfordshire is spending £2 million on Herceptin to tackle breast cancer and there are new effective drugs like statins that have to be paid for.

But not everything is good. If it was, you wouldn’t be here. There are problems as well as improvements.

Local NHS managers are out of control, and that is wrong. They announce that they will break the promise to build a new hospital at Hatfield, but the consultation date, the day we can object to their plans, is delayed and delayed. In the meantime, Cuffley ward at QEII is threatened with closure, scandalously without public consultation.

NHS managers need to recognise that the public are more than just interested bystanders. We own the NHS. It is ours, and our views should be sought out and listened to.

I still believe that the case for a new Hatfield Hospital, with a new teaching school in conjunction with the University, is overwhelming. The NHS spends central London prices and pays central London salaries to train future generations of NHS doctors when it could save money by allowing the best specialists to train the doctors of tomorrow here in Hatfield. This is the approach taken by the Borough Council and the County Council. It is supported by the Liberal Democrats. And the Hospital SOS meeting was inclined to this view too.

(Thanks to the Welwyn Hatfield Times for use of the photo)

Hospital campaigning

On Monday last week, there was a pretty unique meeting. All political parties in the Borough, the hospital trade unions, supporters of all political parties and none, are not only united in their opposition to the threatened hospital cuts, they have pledged to work together to fight the Primary Care Trust's proposals.

The Labour Party and I are pleased to be involved in this campaign. As I have said before, some things are more important than party politics. More details of our campaign to follow, but, for now, we have set up a number of action groups to coordinate the activity.

I will be leading the petitions group. Margaret Birleson, Leader of the Labour Group on the Borough Council will lead a marches and rallies group. Vicki Adkins, who led the fundraising for the breast care unit, will help raise money for the campaign. Terry Mitchinson of the Welwyn Hatfield Times, will coordinate publicity. Charles Bunker will run the evidence group. and
Mandy Perkins of the Conservatives will be responsible for external liaison. A real cross-party campaign.

More details to follow as and when there is news.