Halewood Lib Dem Cllr Dave Smithson raised transport concerns in Halewood with Party leader Nick Clegg MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Norman Baker MP this week. 

At a summit held in Warrington of Lib Dem leaders from across the North West, Cllr Smithson asked Nick Clegg and Norman Baker to do more to help tackle the problems created by bus de-regulation that caused misery to many Halewood residents. 

Cllr Smithson highlighted the problems local residents have travelling to Springwood cemetery and Speke retail park on a Sunday when no service runs directly there from Halewood and THE difficulties they experience getting to Whiston Hospital. 

In response Nick Clegg said: “As an MP in a constituency in a large city such as Sheffield I know exactly how frustrating this can be. I send more time campaigning on bus services on my patch than anything else. 

“There is no doubt that the de-regulation of bus services has been an unmitigated disaster and I can’t understand why we can’t have the same degree of regulation that exists in London in cities like Sheffield, Liverpool and even Halewood.” Norman Baker MP added: “The government has clearly recognised in its Local transport Bill that there is a problem with bus services nationally, but their proposals do not go far enough. 

“We are working behind the scenes to move amendments to the Bill and I agree that we need to move to a system similar to that we see in London.” 

Cllr Smithson added: “I’m very grateful to both Nick and Norman for taking the time to listen to our transport issues and for reassuring us that the Lib Dems in Parliament are working hard to improve bus services in areas like Halewood.”

The play was an excellent way of teaching young children key road safety messages in a fun and engaging way. Over 80 children sat mesmerised and totally enthralled as the play unfolded with songs and dance keeping their attention.

The play is being performed at all Knowsley primary schools over the next five weeks and will help keep our excellent road safety record in good shape while helping safeguard our children.

On their way into the hall one young boy innocently asked when seeing me stood there in my Mayoral chains “Are you Tony Blair?”

“No, I’m the Deputy Mayor of Knowsley,” I replied, in a tone to suggest I was even more important than Mr Blair!!

The innocence of youth never fails to make me smile.

Halewood Town Council has sponsored the newly formed Halewood Town FC and become the club’s first shirt sponsor in a unique deal this season.

I joined the Mayor of Halewood - Cllr Harry Birch - before the team’s home match aganst Blue Line this weekend for a photo call with Manager Paul James and Club Captain Jimmy Eves to celebrate the deal.

Despite losing tneir first game the lads have since won 5-1, 5-2 1nd 5-1 and look set for a great start to their first ever season if they can keep up that winning streak!

While we are on the subject of football I was dismayed to learn that a motion to re-introduce standing terraces at football grounds was passed.

What a ridiculous proposal and clearly out of touch with the sensitivities of all those people who have seen loved ones injured and killed at stadia where things have gone wrong in the past.

I totally agree with Liverpool Council leader Warren Bradley when he says : “I think it’s ridiculous that we’ve got people moving these motions from places like Aylesbury where they’ve no experience of this.

“More terracing is a no-no and I will do everything I can to oppose any further moves to progress this.

“Look at the footage from Hillsborough, Heysel and Ibrox and then tell me you want to get rid of seating at football matches.”

 This is the kind of stupid policy motion that plays into the hands of our politcal opponents and will be used time and time again to try and show that the Lib Dems are out of touch, while many of our serious and ambitious policy programmes are overlooked and not given the oxygen of public debate that they deserve.

It was a shame I was not able to attend conference this year as I for one would have spoken out against this lunacy and ceertainly voted against the motion.

 And here is the evidence…..!!

Gas prices up 35%
Electric prices up 20%
10 ways to help you save energy, money, and help prevent climate change. You could save around £270 per year*.

1 Turn your thermostat down. Reducing your room temperature by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent. You could save around £50 per year.
2 Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat should be set at 60°C/140°F.
3 Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows.
4 Always turn off the lights when you leave a room.
5 Don’t leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave appliances on charge unnecessarily.
6 If you’re not filling up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher, use the half-load or economy programme.
7 Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you’re using an electric kettle).
8 A dripping hot water tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath, so fix leaking taps and make sure they’re fully turned off!
9 Use energy saving lightbulbs. They last up to 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs, and using one can save you around £40 over the lifetime of the bulb. This saving could be up to £60 over its lifetime if you?re replacing a very high wattage incandescent bulb, or one used for more than a few hours a day.
10. Do a home energy check at the ‘www.energysavingtrust.org.uk’ link. Just answer some simple questions about your home and the Energy saving trust will give you a free, impartial report telling you how you can save up to £270 a year on your house hold energy bills.

I hope these tips help you to keep your money in your pocket

In ‘Make it Happen’ the Liberal Democrats say:

• They will cut taxes for ordinary families
• If your local hospital can’t see you on time, they will pay for treatment elsewhere
• They will switch taxes from people to pollution - so it pays to go green
• To improve standards in education, they will fund extra help for those who need it most
• They will put Britain at the heart of Europe to make us a force for good in the world
• They will stop ID cards so we can keep control of our privacy
• They will change the voting system so everyone’s voice counts
• They will bring communities together with local people in charge
• They will give communities a say in how offenders pay for their crimes

Cllr Dave Smithson said, “I am delighted to be able to back ‘Make it Happen’. It sets out how the Liberal Democrats will run Britain.

“No resident of Halewood has escaped the rising cost of food and fuel. The credit crunch is biting hard and local people are feeling the pinch.

“Nick Clegg has set out how we can help ordinary people through cutting taxes on those on low and middle incomes. Thousands of people in Halewood will benefit from this.

“We are taking the plans in ‘Make it Happen’ to the people of Halewood during the summer to get their response. And in September, we will be heading to the Liberal Democrats’ conference where we are looking forward to taking part in the debate.”

The following is an extract from the BBC News web site –

Meanwhile the home secretary denied she wanted to make youngsters caught with knives visit stab victims in hospital.

Conservative leader David Cameron told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m completely baffled. Over the weekend we were told by the government that knife criminals were going to be taken to accident and emergency departments.

“It sounded like a gimmick… Now they [ministers] are in wholesale retreat.”

Ms Smith insisted she had been talking at the weekend about “knife referral schemes” - where young people caught with knives would “face up to the consequences of their actions”, including “graphic” weapons awareness workshops and visits to hospitals to talk to health workers to hear about the impact of knife wounds.

“We are not, and I have never said we are, proposing to bring young people into wards to see patients,” she added.

So were the proposals reported widely by the media over the weekend half baked plans that were hastily scrapped by the Home Secretary in the face of criticism of them prior to her Commons speech? Or did the PM step in and order a change in approach? Or even worse did our national press hype up (or even worse sex up?) the briefings they were given or merely misunderstand what was said?

Meanwhile Sky News web site is also reporting it as a u-turn –

In an interview with Sky’s Adam Boulton on Sunday Live, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said youngsters caught with knives would be forced to confront the possible consequences by bringing them face-to-face with blade victims in hospitals.

But now, the Home Office said they would instead only be expected to meet doctors to be educated about the injuries caused by knives.

“One of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who have been stabbed, or to meet the families of victims, is that correct?” Adam asked.

“It is,” replied Ms Smith.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said Mrs Smith had been “panicked” into bringing forward proposals which evidence in the United States had shown did not work.
“Jacqui Smith is coming up with half-baked ideas because the Government has been in denial about the scale of the knife crime problem,” he added.

Mr Huhne also launched his own response to the problem today in a paper entitled “A Life Away From Crime.”

The proposals include -

• The creation of a Youth Volunteer Force, to engage with young people, involve them in community projects and give them skills to benefit them in later life
• Establish Community Justice Panels across the country, where offenders admit their guilt to the community and agree on a Positive Behaviour Order as a course of action
• Create a dedicated PCSO youth officer within every Safer Neighbourhood Team to identify and work with teenagers most at risk of offending
• 10,000 more police on the streets by scrapping the ID cards scheme
• Intelligence-led stop and search and ‘hot spot policing’ targeted at gun and knife crime
• Restorative justice programs to be run in every community, specifically targeted at early intervention with widespread use in schools and care homes

Chris Huhne said: “This Government has spent 10 years trying to sound tough while failing to cut youth crime.

“In fact, ministers have embarked on the mass criminalisation of a generation of young people. By dragging more and more young people through the criminal justice system, they have reduced the fear of a criminal record and contributed to the problem.

“Instead of shock tactics to grab headlines, we need practical measures that are proven to work.

“Only the Liberal Democrats propose a dual approach to stop kids from getting involved in crime in the first place, and measures to make them face up to the consequences of their actions if they do.”

More details of the Lib Dems plans can be found here –

http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/A%20Life%20Away%20From%20Crime.pdf

I have been assured that this is not the case and the following briefing has been provided to all councillors as a result of similar concerns being raised across Knowsley, I hope local residents find this useful.

Equitable Access to Primary Medical Care
Under the current NHS review, conducted by Health Minister Professor Lord Ara Darzi, each PCT area in England is required to commission a GP led health centre.

In Knowsley, we are not only doing this but also commissioning three brand new GP practices to provide out-of-hours (evening and weekend) health services and serve some of our most vulnerable patients during the day.

We wish to emphasise that contrary to some media coverage nationally, there is no question whatsoever of existing GP practices closing. This provision represents new capacity for Knowsley which is very much needed and is in addition to the successful recruitment of 20 new GPs to the borough in recent months. This is in direct response to extensive public engagement undertaken with local people, indicating a high degree of support.

What is Equitable Access to Primary Medical Care?

As part of the ongoing national NHS Review led by the Health Minister Professor Lord Ara Darzi, Knowsley Primary Care Trust is required to establish three new General Practices and a GP-led health centre to be commissioned by December 08.

This programme is commissioned by Knowsley PCT and supported by NHS North West (the regional Strategic Health Authority).

The practices will be commissioned through a tender process.

What is the aim of the programme?

The programme has been set up nationally to enable local NHS Primary Care Trusts that don’t have as many doctors as they need to attract new service providers to fill gaps in primary medical care provision within their area.

This can be through creating additional general practice capacity, increasing both GP provision and also other primary medical care clinical staff.

In Knowsley, the aim of the programme is to make sure that all Knowsley residents and patients have ‘equitable access’ to GP services.

What we mean by this is that everyone in Knowsley should get the primary medical care services that they need, regardless of their level of need and any other factors that affect their needs or their ability to use our NHS and related care and support services.

To do that, we need to understand and respond to the needs of local people who, for a variety of reasons, are not able to benefit from our traditional primary care services so that we take account of their particular needs in the way we provide services.

These reasons might simply be because they work shifts, so that they can’t get to the GP practice during normal hours.

Or it might be because they have family commitments that make it very difficult to get to existing services.

Or it might be because they are vulnerable and excluded because they have particular needs: for example, problems with alcohol misuse or with mental ill-health that make attending mainstream services difficult and require specialist understanding and support when they do use a service.

Why do we need this in Knowsley?

In Knowsley, there are currently 29 GP practices with almost 160,000 registered patients.

Within the last 18 months 20 new GPs have been recruited to work in these practices.

These GPs have increased capacity and capability of existing practices for their general patients. Our aim is to now focus upon meeting the needs of vulnerable and excluded groups, alongside providing additional access and capacity for all residents – promoting ‘equitable access’ to these services for all.

Whilst all Knowsley patients do already have the benefit of an out-of-hours medical service, which is commissioned by Knowsley Primary Care Trust from a local social enterprise called Urgent Care 24, this service is there to provide urgent medical help to local people who become ill unexpectedly through the night or at weekends and bank holidays when most other NHS services aren’t available. This service cannot, and should not try to, provide an ongoing service to vulnerable patients. Our new practices, however, will be able to cater for their regular health care needs and can also provide specialist support to those more vulnerable members of the community. They will also integrate with other Knowsley services, as is usual in our Knowsley way of working.

Significant engagement has taken place with local people over the last 18 months that helps us understand the needs of local people. We know we have many patients who are excluded from our mainstream services in Knowsley and we need to commission services to meet their needs. Local people with whom we have engaged are always supportive of this approach.

What services will the new practices provide?

The new practices will provide a mix of mainstream primary medical care services, plus a range of specialist services to meet the needs of particular vulnerable groups of patients.

The times the practices are available will overlap with current mainstream primary medical care services already provided at local GP practices.

The practices, which will be available from 8am until 10pm, with the last appointment being at 9.30pm, will assist vulnerable patients during daytime hours and will provide general primary medical care services in the evening.

This overlap with existing hours allows the new practices to undertake work with specific vulnerable sections of the population or those whose particular circumstances prevent them from gaining the best care from existing primary care.

Commissioning these new primary medical care practices to provide specific extended hours services for Knowsley patients will allow patients to book consultations through their existing practices, ensuring that from day one the new practices are providing the best possible service and are running at maximum efficiency and capacity.

The three practices will work alongside existing services to deliver a multi-faceted service, including a particular focus on effective referral through relevant health, social care, employment and housing services for the resident and registered populations of Knowsley who are at present vulnerable or at risk from experiencing social exclusion, or might do so at some point in the future.

The additional GP-led health centre will provide planned care as well as some urgent care.

What benefits will this bring to the patient?

The new practices will ensure that Knowsley patients have a choice to receive services either from a traditional GP practice where continuity and relationship are most important, or to use one of the new practices where opening times, convenience or the need for a particular specialist service are paramount.

Patients treated at the new practices will have the option to register with the site or remain with their current GP, since the new practices will be able, with the patient’s permission, to access the patient’s record.

The new practices will also be able to provide ‘in reach’ services to Nursing/Residential/Hostel/ based groups in order to provide preventative health services. It is also expected that the new practices will undertake preventative and risk detecting work within surgery consultations.

Where will these new services be based?

In order to implement this scheme it has been necessary to take into account the particular geography of Knowsley and equitable access for the whole population across the borough. Hence, it is planned to have two of the GP practices on a single site, one in Huyton and one in Kirkby, with the third on a split site in Whiston and Halewood. The GP-led provision will operate initially from existing premises within Kirkby on a temporary basis before a new GP-led health centre is developed.

Engagement with local people

We already have much information about the numbers of patients who need specialist support, as well as information about how some patients would like to be able to use GP and primary medical care services at times at which they are not currently available.

We have information from national and local engagement under a programme called ‘Fairness in Primary Care’ which happened in 2007 and led to our recruitment of the 20 new GPs.

We also have information from many sources locally about the needs of vulnerable groups.

In addition to this information, active engagement has taken place over recent weeks with vulnerable groups, including:

A Offenders on probation
B Drug and alcohol substance misusers
C People experiencing domestic violence in self-help or in supported residential accommodation
D Homeless men living in hostel accommodation
E People living in residential and nursing homes
F People on Drug Rehabilitation Requirement Orders

These views have been brought together with the other sources of information reports to help guide the development of the tender specification for our new practices and the services they will provide for local people.

148 Labour MPs, 21 Conservative MPs and UKIP’s only MP united on Thursday night [3rd July] to vote down the proposal for an independent audit of all MPs’ expenses claims.

No Liberal Democrat MP voted against the audit plans.

This decision by MPs is foolish and wrong. It is a disaster for anyone who believes in cleaning up our politics and improving Parliament’s reputation. The House of Commons had the chance to vote for proper auditing of everything MPs do with public money, but an unholy coalition of Labour and Conservative MPs prevented it.

I am deeply disappointed that Eddie O’Hara MP voted against allowing all MPs’ allowances to be externally audited. 52 of his Labour colleagues joined the Liberal Democrats and some Conservatives in voting for independent auditing. Eddie O’Hara MP must tell us – why did he vote to water down the proposals?

Rarely a week seems to pass without a story in the press about MPs apparently fiddling their finances. The vast majority of MPs are not corrupt. But so long as they resist having their expenses and allowances subject to robust, external audit, the public can be forgiven for wondering what they have got to hide.”

I welcome the announcement by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg that the Lib Dems are committing to unilaterally introduce proposals rejected by Parliament yesterday, including independent spot checks of the expenses of the party’s MPs:

It is good to see Liberal Democrat MPs setting an example and showing that they have nothing to fear from open, independent scrutiny of their expenses.

I hope that the Labour and Conservative leaderships will follow Nick Clegg’s lead in implementing these measures, and we can begin to restore public confidence in politicians.