Ilford South Labour Party

Mike Gapes MP and Labour Party members present petition in 2007

The photograph shows Ilford South Labour Party members, with their M.P Mike Gapes, just before they presented the petition with 28,000 signatures demanding that King George Hospital be saved in 2007.

Our 2007 Campaign was successful. Now the regional health service management have returned to this ridiculous proposal. They have issued ‘Health for North East London’ a consultation document which in their view is the route to ‘delivering high quality hospital health services for the people of north east London’. What appears again is the downgrading of King George Hospital, closure of the A&E and closure of the maternity unit.

4 years ago Lord Ara Darzi was commissioned by the Government to look into the future of healthcare in London. His initial proposals envisaged local hospitals serving a population of between 200,000 and 250,000 proposals. Under these proposals, from our health service managers, Redbridge plus Barking and Dagenham with an expanding population, currently of 446,000 will be deprived of a local hospital.

Already Redbridge Council has rejected the proposals at its Health Scrutiny Committee and voted to ‘refer the issue to the Secretary of State for Health requesting that he establish an independent review of these proposals…’

What can you do?

1. Take part in the consultation, which runs until March 8 2010. Fill in the questionnaire on the Website www.healthfornel.nhs.uk.

2. Write in protest to Freepost RSAE RCET ATJY, Health for North East London, Harrow, HA1 2QG.

3. Call them with your views on 0808 238 5416 ( it is a free line).

4. Sign Mike Gapes M.P’s new petition on line at www.savekinggeorgehospital.org.uk or by requesting forms from his Constituency Office at 6 Mildmay Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DT, Tel: 020 8911 0899.

5. If you can manage it, we are encouraging everyone to ask for some forms and get their friends and neighbours to sign. Just remember we need them back by March 8th

6. JOIN THE MARCH AND RALLY. Meet outside King George Hospital on Barley Lane at 1.15 p.m. on Saturday 13 February 2010. March to the Town Hall in Ilford High Road where you will hear Mike Gapes M.P (Ilford South), Lee Scott M.P. ( Ilford North) and Chris Carter (Editor of the Ilford Recorder) speak against the proposals from the Town Hall steps.

Read Mike Gapes full speech in Parliament on this subject, go to www.mikegapes.org.uk

This item is with apologies to anyone who knows all this information, but even long term Labour Party Members sometimes ask about the Co-operative Party!

For over 90 years the Co-operative Party has stood for giving economic and political power to everyone in our society. It stands for:-

• Supporting co-operative and mutual enterprise.
• Employee Ownership
• Remutualisation
• Land Reform
• Investing in a Co-operative future
• An economy in all our interests
• Delivering high quality affordable housing
• Building Stronger Communities

Internationally they stand for:-

• A move from speculation to long term investment
• Protecting the future of our planet
• Tackling Global Poverty
• Trade Justice

The Co-operative Party works in a long term agreement with the Labour Party. It sponsors the constituencies of Members of Parliament who are members. Our own M.P. Mike Gapes is a ‘Labour and Co-operative M.P’. There is a branch that meets in Redbridge. You do not have to be a Labour Party Member to join the Co-op Party, but many Labour Party members have membership of both parties. If you agree with these principles find out more and join.

Find out more:-

From www. Party.coop.
From www.Thefeelingsmutual.org.uk
By writing or phoning to the Co-operative Party, 77 Weston Street, London, SE1 3SD. Tel: 020 7367 4150.
By writing to the local secretary Roy Emmett 63 Brocket Way, Chigwell, IG7 4ER.

Whilst you are about it the Co-operative Group has taken over Somerfield. There are now many more places locally where you can get a dividend on your purchases. If you are not a member find out more now.
Visit the Co-operative Group Website www.co-operative.coop

Mike Gapes, along with other local politicians, will lead a march from King George Hospital at 1.15 on Saturday 13th February to a Rally at Ilford Town Hall where he will speak against the proposed closure of the Hospital’s Accident & Emergency department and threat to over 400 beds. Come along on the day and make your voice heard. Commit to attending at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216847844343

What was life like with the Conservatives?

“In March 1991 over 50,000 patients were waiting 2 years or more to go into hospital… For hip or knee replacements and cataract operations, a waiting time guarantee of 18 months has already been established… From April 1995, the NHS is broadening this 18-month guarantee to cover all admissions to hospital.”
NHS Patient’s Charter, 1995

How things have changed under Labour!

“By December 2008, the longest you will wait after being referred by your GP until you start your treatment will be 18 weeks - that is, unless it is clinically appropriate to wait longer, or you choose to delay treatment. Wherever possible you will wait less than this. Any hospital appointments, tests, scans or other procedures that you may need before being treated will all happen within this maximum time limit.”
http://www.18weeks.nhs.uk

On Monday 5th October Mike Gapes attended the monthly branch meeting of the Seven Kings Branch Labour Party. He responded to questions collected from branch members and put to him by one of their number, Liz Pearce. Mike talked about his constiuency, the situation in Sri Lanka and the Labour Party Conference.

Mike Gapes, MP for Ilford South, spoke to a meeting of local Labour Party members last Thursday night on the inhumane detention of 300,000 Tamil men, women & children by the Sri Lankan government. He will be supporting a resolution to the Labour Party Conference supporting the call by the National Union of Journalists to allow journalists to enter Sri Lanka to report on what is happening in the camps. British Tamils need to know what has happened to their relatives. The resolution also urges the government to press for the withdrawal of favoured trading status for Sri Lanka, which is currently being reconsidered by the European Union, until aid charities and journalists have free access to the country.

Two former Labour Councillors who have been deselected by the London Region of the Labour Party have defected to the Lib Dems. In doing so they betray those who voted for them because they were Labour candidates, their Labour colleagues locally and the Labour values they professed to hold.

Barbara White, speaking for the Local Government Committee of Redbridge Labour Party, commented:

“What has happened has nothing to do with the local Labour Party so I am puzzled and bitterly disappointed that these two councillors have turned their backs on their colleagues. Not only have they turned their backs on their colleagues they have treated the residents who supported them very badly. Did Cllrs Satnam Singh and Fiaz Noor change their political views overnight or have they been cheating on their supporters for a long time pretending to be something that they are not?

These two councillors have worked well for the residents of Redbridge for many years and how sad that because things didn’t go their way for once they now seem hell bent on destruction and they have thrown their core values out of the window.

Like many others I am saddened that people who you would expect to be pillars of society are adopting such a cavalier attitude and hurting those around them.”

Barbara White, Ilford South Labour Party Trade Union Liaison Officer, had star billing in the letters column of the Ilford Recorder the other week with an item stressing how this Tory Council mismanages our services and wastes money. Here is her letter:

“A few weeks ago we read that the result of the Audit Commission Inspection showed that Redbridge Homes received a one star rating which would result in delays for Redbridge Homes receiving funding from the Government’s Decent homes initiative.

I have now heard that Redbridge tenants will be over-charged for rent during the next couple of months because Redbridge Council has delayed passing on the benefits of an increased Government subsidy. Many councils have already passed the cut on to their tenants but people in Redbridge will have to wait until the end of August before they benefit. If this isn’t bad enough the council have blamed the delay on one of their infamous consultation exercises. It was held to find out whether or not tenants wanted a reduction in their rent. I have no idea how much the consultation cost but Turkeys Voting For Christmas springs to mind. So that you are not in any doubt I must tell you that the tenants voted in favour of a rent reduction. If the Government has made this gesture the benefits to tenants should be felt immediately.

In last week’s Ilford Recorder Mrs Janet Cornish wrote, quite rightly, about the lack of swimming facilities in Redbridge due to the sudden closure of the pool in Ilford.. She mentioned that the hundreds of thousands of pounds have been granted from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for free swimming. A bid was made in 2001 to the DCMS for a mixed leisure complex in Winston Way. In 2003 the Government offered £10.5 million Private Finance Initiative credits. The council spent an incrdible amount of money on the first stage of the procurement process. In 2005 there was an internal power struggle and leadership changes and the Conservative council changed its mind and decided to opt for an “Olympic Pool” on the Cricklefield site. As Mrs Cornish said we do not need an Olympic sized pool, just simple, local ones where families can enjoy swimming together.

The above are three examples of the Government giving something to Redbridge which have been mismanaged by the total incompetence of this Tory council.”

Redbridge Homes, the Council’s arms length housing management organisation, has again failed to achieve 2 stars in its Audit Commission Inspection. This means that £39 million of Government money, which has been awarded to Redbridge Council by the Government to make significant improvements to Redbridge Council tenants homes, will not be released.

Tenants will now have to await the results of another inspection before they will know if their homes will receive much needed improvements. This could take another 10 months to a year.

When the Tories took over Redbridge in 2002, Redbridge Housing had a 1 star rating, In 7 years the Tories have gone to 0 stars and now back to 1 star. Tenants have been badly let down.

Labour asks where is the Tories commitment to providing decent homes for our residents?