Ilford South Labour Party

Mike Gapes MP wrote to the Ilford Recorder last week regarding the decision by the Secretary of State to proceed with the closure of A&E and labour services at King George. This despite the damning indictment by the Care Quality Commission of these same services at Queen’s Hospital. Mike also urges people to sign the petition against the Health & Social Care Bill.

The Coroners Inquest confirmed that neglect by Queens Hospital contributed to the tragic death of Sareena Ali (Recorder 17 Nov). Yet Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley “fully supports” closure of maternity and Accident and Emergency at King George Hospital . Health Minister Simon Burns told me in my Nov 8th Parliamentary debate that these services would go in about two years.

Nationally Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are going ahead with their reckless Health and Social Care Bill. We have already seen waiting-times increase since David Cameron came to power. His plans encourage local hospitals to treat more private patients while NHS patients are left waiting longer. They create a postcode lottery in the NHS, where patients are refused treatments in one area that their friends can get in another. The unwanted reorganisation wastes £3billion which would be better spent on medicines, equipment and staff.

David Cameron has no democratic mandate for this Health Bill. It wasn't in his manifesto. It wasn't in Nick Clegg's either. The public never voted for it and healthcare professionals are fearing it.

I have worked very hard with others on a cross party basis for six years to Save King George Hospital. But following Labour's justified condemnation of the Lansley decision in a leaflet distributed during the Aldborough by-election, Conservative Redbridge Council Leader Keith Prince told the Recorder on November 3rd that cross party campaigning was now over. Tories boycotted a campaign committee meeting on November 4th. Although there is no basis for a continuing cross party campaign I will continue to fight with local people of good will to defend King George Hospital and our NHS which is not safe in the hands of Lansley, Cameron and Clegg.

Aneurin Bevan, creator of the NHS, said there would be an NHS only for as long as there were people left to fight for it. That fight is now upon us.

Please add your name to the petition at www.dropthebill.com.

Last week the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published the report on its investigation into deep seated issues around the quality of care provided by the Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospital Trust. On the same day, the Secretary of State for Health announced his decision to approve plans to close Accident & Emergency and Labour services at King George Hospital, based on the advice of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.

The CQC stated:

"Long-standing concerns in maternity services have progressively worsened. The most significant problems were identified at Queen's Hospital…"

"Accident and emergency services at Queen's Hospital have struggled to meet the four-hour target for admission. A tipping point was reached last winter when the quality of services began to collapse. There have been some improvements in 2011 which the trust needs to consolidate to reduce the risk of poor care happening again."

"There are challenges for the trust in terms of capacity at Queen's Hospital. There has been a gradual transfer of services from King George Hospital to Queen's Hospital, but the efficiency gains that were supposed to occur at Queen's Hospital have not come about."

"The majority of maternity services are now provided at Queen's Hospital. Staff, stakeholders, patients, and evidence from external reviews all indicate that too many women now attend Queen's Hospital for their maternity care, and that the trust cannot cope with the level of activity."

"The trust has had difficulty in ensuring that patients are admitted from the emergency department in less than four hours, particularly at Queen's Hospital since it opened in 2006."

"The emergency department reached its tipping point last winter when the quality of service began to collapse."

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel noted that Health For North East London had consulted widely regarding its plans. It failed to acknowledge that it had completely ignored the overwhelming response from local people.

The CQC has made 73 recommendations for improvements at the trust and will be monitoring their implementation. The Labour Party in Ilford will continue to work with others, from all political parties & those with no affiliation, to ensure the trust is held to those recommendations. But it’s a disgrace that David Cameron & his Secretary of State have reneged on the promises they made before the last election to prevent the closure of local hospital services.

The Boundary Commission has put forward proposals to abolish the parliamentary constituency of Ilford South, splitting its wards between four other constituencies. This is part of its attempt to reduce the number of MPs in London. It seems strange to do so by breaking up one of the largest existing constituencies! Below is the response of Barbara White, Labour Councillor for Goodmayes Ward. You can also see Mike Gapes MP’s response by clicking here.

Whilst understanding the difficulties of reducing the number of constituencies in London from 73 to 68 the proposed changes would mean the total loss of Ilford South with the stroke of a pen.

Ilford South is a multi cultural area made up of many races and many faiths. We all live in harmony and we should be held up as a model and not divided by four. We share each others festivals and our lives are enriched by this.

I live in Cranbrook and under the proposals Cranbrook would join the new Wanstead and Woodford constituency. People from Cranbrook have little to do with Woodford. We are used to walking round our constituence y and passing synagogues, churches, temples, gurdwaras and mosques. This isn't the case in Woodford. People from Ilford South joke about needing a passport to visit Woodford. There is a tremendous community spirit in Ilford South which should be treasured.

The destruction of the historic Ilford South is appaling and will result in the loss of identity for many. As terrible as it may be I appreciate the fact that some change is inevitable.

If we think of Ilford town centre, the hub of life in Ilford, it appears madness to split the town centre into two separate constituencies.

Because of its diversity there are close community and religious associations between certain wards. The first one that springs to mind is the closeness of the jewish people who live in Cranbrook and Clayhall. Putting these two wards together would make sense. I believe that Mike Gapes, MP for Ilford South, has already presented his alternative to you. The alternative proposal was given to you by somebody who understands the area and the important links between certain wards. He has been the MP for Ilford South for almost 20 years.

The historical part of Ilford is very important. The constituents of Ilford South have had their own member of parliament for sixty six years. They want an Ilford South MP and surely they are entitled to that. Ilford South is one of the five largest constituencies in the country and to simply dismiss it is callous and brutal.

An item from Barbara White, one of our Labour Councillors for Goodmayes & Chair of the Area 5 Committee

What a wonderful day was had by approximately 5.000 people on the last Sunday in September. They were the people who attended the Area 5 (Chadwell, Goodmayes & Seven Kings) Community Festival.

The crowds were entertained by the Wenn Stage School, a Folk Band, and a very energetic Janice Irwin who had the crowd on their feet joining in her Zumba Class. They say that Britain’s Got Talent but I can assure you that Redbridge has as well.

Free food for all was provided by the Seven Kings Gurdwara and there was a BBQ provided by the Barley Bowls Club. Our Deputy Mayor, Cllr Felicity Banks, tried her hand at bowling. Free afternoon tea was provided at St Paul’s Church as part of the event. Councillors from Seven Kings, Goodmayes and Chadwell were also there offering help and advice to residents.

There were so many events for the children that it is difficult to know where to start. Spartans Basket Ball Team coached younger children, the Youth Bus was there as was a climbing wall, gyroscope and crazy bikes for free. Maytime Montessori, Goodmayes carried out free face painting and henna and for the mums and dads Lloyds Pharmacy, Chadwell Heath, gave free checks for blood pressure and diabetes.

The local allotment societies from both Seven Kings and Goodmayes joined forces to display a colourful array of produce.

There was a Give or Take Recycling event and Dr Bike was there to fix any bike problems.

The event proved that in Area 5 there is only one community and that is Our Community.

I would like to thank the caretaker, staff and everybody who helped with the event. The biggest accolade must go to Antoinette Davis who was like a one woman show pulling all the events together. She even arranged the sunshine.

I’m looking forward to next year and hope to see you there.

Cllr Barbara White, Goodmayes. Chair Area 5.

Redbridge Labour Group Leader Bob Littlewood was in Rochdale recently to hear Labour Leader Ed Milliband give his backing to Labour Councils that are handing power to local people in a radical bid to improve services. Labour’s cooperative councils believe almost all services can be improved by shifting more power to local people. This new approach is not about turning all services into co-ops nor is it intended to replace skilled professionals. It is about giving local people choice and control over the services they use.

Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, the first cooperative council, said,

We are changing the way we run council services so that local people have a much bigger say over what happens to them and the places they live. It means more community-owned cooperative housing, more older people choosing which care services they want to use, more local control over parks and green spaces. We call it the cooperative council and the community work together to make life better.

Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party said,

These Labour Councils have come to the home of the co-operative movement in Rochdale to reclaim founding traditions of the Labour and Co-operative movements- of collective action and co-operation, or empowerment and enterprise. These co-operative councils will help transform local services and local communities.

How Does This Translate Here In Redbrige?

In Redbridge of course we are not in control of the Council, it is run by the Conservatives in partnership with their Lib Dem allies. We have developed a strategy for rethinking service provision. Since May 2010 the Con/Dem leadership of Redbridge has embarked on a savings programme involving very serious reductions in public services. They have concentrated on finding across the board savings and lopping off bits here and there.

• They have failed to work out a vision of what their priorities are for the future, or to examine all of the possible means of providing local services.
• Their savings programme, which is not coupled with any vision or direction means it is impossible to justify any individual service cut or redundancy.
• The Council carries out lots of consultation, but this is not the same as working with residents.
• We thus vigorously oppose the planned cuts and will not accept privatisation.

WE SAY IT IS TIME TO RETHINK SERVICE PROVISION

• It is time to look at new ideas.
• We would examine other councils who have created partnerships with residents to provide services or community facilities.
• We would work out where we can establish partnerships with residents to provide services or community facilities.
• Rather than cut grants to the voluntary sector, we would examine expanding their role.
• We would examine where mutuals or not for profit organisations can take on service provision.

Our Labour Action Teams are out weekly talking to you on your doorstep.

If you want to read the Co-operative Councils press release or a fuller version of our rethinking of service provision the full documents are available on this site.

Mandy Richards a Labour activist from Hackney has been selected to fight the Havering and Redbridge GLA Seat in the 2012 election.

Mandy says:-

‘In 2012 we must return Ken Livingstone as Labour Mayor and reclaim Labour’s legacy now hijacked by Boris Johnson. I aim to be a catalyst for community campaigning, fighting to protect and strengthen community policing, promoting regeneration and social enterprise, and working towards real community cohesion by building trust and engaging the young and disenfranchised through inclusive politics’

True to her word Mandy is now a regular campaigner in our area. Here we see her at work with local Party members in Valentines and Cranbrook wards with Cllrs. Aziz Choudhury, Ross Hatfull, and Mushtaq Ahmed.

Whilst all the recent focus has been on the Queen in Ireland and meeting President Obama, a campaign involving the royal household has received much less attention.

The Public and Commercial Services Union ( PCS) have been campaigning for all the cleaners in the royal household to be paid the London Living Wage. Cleaners in the Houses of Parliament earn the recommended living wage for London of £7.85 per hour.  The Union represents most of the employees in the royal household but not historically the cleaners who are employed by two private contractors. Following an approach from some employees the union began receiving applications for membership from among the cleaners and a range of issues about working conditions and health and safety issues  were raised.

PCS mounted a campaign to tie in with the Royal Wedding . There is an on line petition, tube stations and staff entrances to the Palace have been leafleted. The latest announcement from one of the contractors is that ‘efficiencies’ are being looked at in order to improve salaries. The fear is that efficiencies means job cuts.

Redbridge Councillor Andy Walker has visited Buckingham  Palace to hand in a letter signed by local union representatives and Labour Councillors from London boroughs including himself and Cllr. Balvinder Saund from Seven Kings Ward.

The letter read:-

‘I have read press reports that the Royal Household is considering lifting the pay of Royal cleaners to the London Living Wage.

I would be welcome if you could tell me whether you have any such plans as I would welcome such a development’

Cllr. Balvinder Saund, Deputy Leader of the Labour Group said

‘Low pay is a big issue for women, these are the people who clean not only palaces but supermarkets and offices. Employers paying the higher London Living Wage will make a real difference to women and their families across London. The Tories are supposed to support the London Living Wage, but when it came to signing a letter encouraging the Palace to pay the cleaners a better wage not a single local Tory signed.  A Labour administration would pay the London Living Wage to Council employees and ask firms who contract with the Council whether they pay at least the London Living Wage to their employees.’

Mike Gapes M.P. said:-

‘ I am pleased to give my support to this campaign. The cost of housing and living costs make London a very expensive place to live. All workers including those working for the Royal family should be paid a living wage’

If you want to know more or sign the on line petition visit www.pcs.org.uk/royal cleaners

Watch the real news interview with a royal cleaner and footage from the protest at the Palace

http://www.youtube.com/user/ReelNews.

Our Photo shows Cllr Andy Walker outside the Palace before presenting the letter.

Today’s March for the Alternative, organised by the Trades Union Congress, is expected to be the largest civil society demonstration in many years. And Labour Party members from Ilford South will be there carrying the Ilford South banner. Not everyone can join the march. Whether you’re attending the march or not you can help create an online protest that matches that on the street. Here are some suggestions, courtesy of False Economy.

First picture back from the march!

The Labour Group on Redbridge Council this week published “Rethinking Service Provision In Redbridge” which sets out a new approach & imaginative approach to providing council services in the borough. Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Bob Littlewood, called for greater engagement with users in the provision of services, greater involvement of voluntary groups and more power for area committees.

Read the strategy here

The campaign by Downshall Centre users forced a hurried change to the agenda at Tueday night’s cabinet meeting. Various caveats were added to the recommendation for a “Free School” to replace the Downshall Centre. But the decision was still taken “in principle” to sell the centre to E-Act, a national organisation wishing to set up a school in Ilford & voluntary groups were left no clearer about their future.

The caveats were included to ensure that the council discharges its legal obligations, particularly in respect of Equalities legislation. Cllr Keith Prince, Leader of the Conservative & Liberal Democrat coalition running Redbridge, issued an apology to voluntary organisations & users of the Downshall Centre for the way things had been handled by his colleague, Cllr Alan Weinberg, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services. (more…)