St Johns Residents and Net work rail. People Before Profit question to council and response.

PUBLIC QUESTION NO. 8

                                                                                    Priority 3

LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM

COUNCIL MEETING

23 JANUARY 2013

Question asked by:  Mr R Woolford on behalf of Lewisham People Before

                                    Profit

Member to reply:       Councillor Susan Wise

Question

Can the Council please confirm what support it has and will give to residents of St Johns Deptford, who are seeking compensation because they have lost every holiday including Christmas due to the excessive noise night and day by Network Rail?

Can the Council use its position to insure that the new improvements that Network Rail is promising for St Johns Station include access for the disabled, which presently it fails to offer, contrary to European law?

Reply

Network Rail have provided noise insulation in the form of secondary glazing or a grant towards double glazing, along with a temporary re-location package over the Christmas period, to 33 of the worse affected households surrounding the area at St Johns where construction is taking place as part of the Thameslink programme.

These measures have been included as it is recognised that the level of noise during the programme of works is likely to be disturbing, particularly during the night time, where a major amount of the works are required to take place due to the closeness of works near live rail.

The Council are monitoring the works on site through the Control of Pollution Act 1974, Section 61 consent process. This consent considers the management of noise on site, which includes the Contractor providing predicted noise levels at different receptors surrounding the site which are representative of affected properties. All reasonably possible noise mitigation and selection of plant and methods of work are considered through the process to reduce noise levels from the site.

The provision of off site mitigation, in the form of  noise insulation or temporary rehousing follows Network Rail’s own policy requirements, which uses the predicted noise levels to assess when/if a certain number of exceedances, to their trigger levels occurs. The Council have appointed their own noise consultants to validate the noise predictions carried out by Network Rail and are currently reviewing the predictions for the post Christmas works to assess whether there are any further households, not previously identified that now qualify for noise insulation. The Council are therefore examining Network Rail’s calculation procedure and results to independently verify that every property that can and should be identified for noise insulation under their own policy is being included.

The Council have been carrying out their own noise monitoring and are currently assessing these results along with the Contractors own noise results, for the Christmas period,  to establish whether Network Rail’s temporary re-location package offered to the 33 households, should have been extended to include other properties, on the basis of the noise monitoring data. Network Rail will be providing a response to the residents who have asked for this to be considered once the results have been fully assessed and the Council will again be closely examining their results and findings.

Can the Council use its position to insure that the new improvements that Network Rail is promising for St Johns Station include access for the disabled, which presently it fails to offer, contrary to European law?

Network Rail’s Thameslink programme have stated that improved access for the disabled doesn’t fall within their works.

The Council are actively involved in supporting residents and senior members of the Council have been present at the two public meetings held. Also the Council is regularly updating it’s own dedicated webpage for St Johns Thameslink works where all relevant documents, including the Council’s Section 61 consent issued to the Contractor, are available. https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/regeneration/deptford/Pages/St-Johns-Station-rail-works.aspx

Diary of a Food Bank Worker.the people, the issues, why the need

I had not planned to write about the Food Bank, it is a place that should never exist in a Country as rich as ours and yet without the work we do and the 3000 plus other food banks across the UK, people would die.
I started out on this journey after finding working people going through the bins outside my office, which faces a council estate.
Speaking to the people going through the bins, i was shocked to discover that they all had jobs, but with rents up by 10% transport costs up 9% , food inflation by 2% and Utility bills by 8%  whilst wages are frozen or on freefall, is it any wonder they tell me, that working every hour God sends....., we can not live and need to go through the bins for food.
The Goverment clearly has no idea about how tough some people are finding things, so i have decided to do a monthly diary as to who comes to the food bank and why  in the hope we can get the Goverment to do more to tackle food  &; fuel poverty and look more carefully as to how it  deals with people on low incomes and in Poverty.
Goverment figures show that 61% of working people are paid such low wages they need welfare top up, this is in effect sees  tax payers money  used for  welfare  subsudising the profits and the share price of large business interests putting it more simply, Tesco makes just under £4 Billion a year profit, and yet its workers claim £1.5 Billion in welfare payments, clearly by paying people a decent wage, we could reduce the welfare bill hugely by ending the payments to the staggering 61% of workers, giving them a decent wage, would raise more tax, and produce more money to spend in the wider economy, this is a key election policy of People Before Profit, and you wonder why when we are told that we are all in this together, that this abuse of tax payers money is not stopped.
Claiming food is very tough, you may think giving people free food and shopping would lead to wide abuse, and yet every one of our clients are carefully interviewed to insure this does not happen, the reality is that for almost all,  the shame of needing help, the impact of the need to ask for food for themselfs or there pets  leads to some people taking up to 3 weeks to come through our doors.
 I will change the names of our Clients for the readers of this blog, but think the story of the Food Bank clients needs to be read .
Betty is one of our increasing numbers of Pensioners,  in her eightees she can not go back to work, but clearly has had a hard life but worked from the age of 14. with children this Christmas she sort the help of the food bank. Betty had made jams for Christmas but as with many of our Pensioners could not ask for help, the jams she made were given as presents to family her good deed left her with nothing, with her pride insuring that none of her family were aware that without the food bank, she would have no food, the cost of heating her home is not short of £10 per day, Betty is not alone, proud, a worker and still with a sense of humour, but will only take what she needs and not a single item extra, many have jam jars that they drop coins to help towards Gas and Electric, But bills that were once £100, or less are coming in at £350, £400 for  people with incomes of less than £100 per week.
Barry has just got his first Job, but reporting his good news to the Job Centre has lead to all his benefit being stopped at Christmas, he will not get paid until 31 January,The welfare system is not helping him, it seems to think as he has a job, he should be left to get on with it. each day he walks in the snow to work, each week we give him food to get through the week, and every week he thanks us for what we do and pledges to give some money to help the food bank when he gets his first pay cheque.
Maureen is disabled the welfare system have decided even though she is wheel chair bound she must be reviewd, to do this,  all benefit is stopped without thought for how she will live whilst the review is underway, Boxing Day some crule sod stole her mobility scooter chained up outside her house, the police say they proberly stole it just for the tax disc, and scrap metal.
I hope this gives you an insight as to who is coming and why,  and that the system to help thous most in need has failed them, I will continue with my diary of a food bank worker the first week of every month.
This Saturday clients and staff are marching to save Lewisham Hospital facing closure due to the PFI contracts set up by the Last Labour Goverment, that has lead to the closure of the South East London Area Trust, the clients want to march to save the  Lewisham Hospital and collect food another time
Follow Ray on Twitter@Raywoolford

EU REFERENDUM , Why we will never be given a true IN and OUT Vote.

What ever percentage of voters back UKIP, or what ever the Conservatives say about a free vote, it will never happen.
We should all be far more aware of the politics of establishment and the fact main stream polical groups will always feed us a diet of what they expect and think we want to hear as sound bites to insure without any real thought or reason, come the election the voters will blindly Vote Conservative, because they think they will get out of the EU, or Labour to stay in.
The Present hype around the Prime Ministers speech is just hot air in the hope the Conservatives can win back the increasing numbers of Concervatives who say they will vote UKIP next time, They clearly will say and do anything to cling on to power come 2015 Elections.
So why am i correct in what i am saying? . Our Membership was agreed long ago and we cannot claim any powers back as claimed by posh Dave, the only we we can change this is to enforce article 50, which gives you the power to  make agreement, but you have to have at this stage come out of the EU, so what the Conservatives are saying is just to please the Conservative right, he himself as stated many times,  he would campaign to stay in, so this is is proberly the only aspect of this reterick that may be true.
Is the EU good for Business? the only real reason we are being given to stay in.
 In 2011 48% of our exports went to the EU, in 2001 it was 54%, clearly its business argument is getting weaker, whilst some commentators state it is free to trade within Europe and that to come out we would see a 2% extra tax, this argument fails to build in the strong pound against the Euro that far out ways the 2% charge nor does their argument mention the £54 Million it costs us each day in Membership.
Out Trade deficit in the 40 years we have been members has never run a trade surplus with the other EU countries.Keeping it simpley,  we import more to the UK than  from Europe than we export, making our position as a member based  on business a losing argument.
Labour is on 40% of the popular vote, we have a nation in which far to many people vote establishment without any thought or reason, the foolish and the stupid continue to keep either Labour or Conservatives in power, yes in Scotland they after 30 years drove out Labour from Power, across the UK, Greens, Respect and others are makeing slow breakthroughs, but Labour will be the larger party and if any Lib Dems are left the next Goverment will be one not unlike the present, although it will not be one calling for an in out vote.. As for UKIP, they are just a distraction, they have no real aim to pull out, they understand it would need an act of Parliment, and they will never win 360 seats to bring this about.
They have no local power and have no one at Westminster unlike Respect and Greens that do. The Establishment keeps the small groups out of the media hoping the anti Establishment voter will stay with UKIP, the real fear is seeing the smaller Groups break through at Westminster taking away there power base, whilst UKIP earn money and power from its Euro MEPs, do you really think they truly wish to end the gravy train?
I hope i have given you good reason to not buy into the EU vote lie, to trust your own judgement, think for yourself and back smaller Political Groups, People before Profit has the best chance in my area, but across the UK, new people groups are forming, We can make a difference, but that will only come about when we all change the way we think and stop voting mainstream.
Brighten has elected a Green MP and a Green Council, Bradford has elected Respect, both were safe Labour seats.Whilst the Conservatives have some fear about UKIP, the reality is that the fear is also their for the Labour party, that has lost seats to the smaller parties, whilst UKIP is only a treat..you may ask why UKIP gets so much publicity but smaller groups get none.

Deptford High Street Its fall and decline. It could be so different

Ok, i love everything about Deptford, the long term residents who have fought for and supported it through good and these days bad times,  and the local traders many of which work every hour God sends with little reward for themselfs, with many telling you these days they work for the Landlords, the Council to pay Business rates, and the tax man.
So what can be done to stop the decline?.
 We have the most creative people on the planet living in Deptford, we have Goldsmiths and we have People Before Profit as the political alternative to the Labour party agenda of selling everything off cheap, charging excessive rents and putting development  before the long term interests of the area and the residents that call it home.
People before Profit are working on a long term plan to transform the area, we support the fantastic plans put forward by Deptford IS, and Julians plans to build the last great ship the  Lennox, we would also like to see a national artist competition to transform the buildings and the  look of the high street by securing european funding to do up shops and flats above.
We would like to see Deptford transforned   as successful as Borough market , this could be done by focusing on the huge diverse population offering food from China, Eritrea, South Africa, Nigeria and more, we would also like to see food stalls in which we can all try foods that we oftern see but never try, we also have a fantastic market selling a huge range of produce few people try and even viewer no how to cook, by setting up stalls and cookery open classes we could enrich our taste buds whilst giving a real boost to the local economy without needing to flood the street with more Tesco metros or big brands.
 People before profit would also push forward with the opening of the river and would offer a boat service to Deptford Bridge as a way of boosting the local economy.
 Others have surgested a bridge to link Greenwich with Deptford to build on the areas marine history, whilst other ideas are to set up areas for live music, poetry and street theatre, other plans would be to turn empty spaces and shops into drop in centres in which people can paint,  do pottery and do much more on their own, or as a family unit.
Deptford has huge potential, i hope you agree with these ideas and if you can ad, please post a comment or email me direct.
Deptford High Street,  a plan to boost our high street with be a key part of our election campaign in 2014 when People before Profit hope to win the Deptford and New Cross Council seats from Labour, who are rarely seen if ever in the area, with 2 local Labour Councilors regularly featured in the press for claiming thousands in expenses for attending 1 meeting every six months to insure they are still able to get the £10.000 less a few pounds in attendence allowances.
Needless to say Labour Councillors do attend the key meetings to close down or cut local services.

Elephant and Castle Residents views Ignored Development Gets Go ahead

Whilst i constantly seek to focus mainly on Lewisham as this is the area People before Profit is most likely to Win Council and Westminster seats in next round of electionms, What is going on with Planning proposals and the way in which local people are being priced out of the area they call home, the way views of local people are ignored as local party Politicians and in this case a Labour Council continue to put big biusiness interest before local residents. I hope when you read this , you think about putting yourself forward as a People Before Profit Council Candidate at the next local elections. We can put a stop to this, but we need to change the way we all vote to stop this abuse of public offices Hijacked by money, greed and self interest.

http://35percent.org/blog/2013/01/16/objectors-excluded-from-heygate-hearing/

Objectors Excluded From Sell-out Heygate Hearing

JAN 16TH, 2013

Objectors are fuming after being refused entry to Tuesday’s public hearing for the Heygate masterplan planning application.

Over 40 local residents including members of the Wansey Street TRA and representatives from the Elephant & Castle’s Latin American traders, were refused entry to proceedings at the council’s Tooley St. headquarters.

A total of 102 seats had been allocated for the hearing, but objectors arrived to find that around half of these had already been taken up by representatives from the developer and the council’s regeneration & property divisions.

With Southwark’s largest ever planning application and 300 objectors, a room with maximum capacity for just 100 people had been allocated to the hearing. Southwark’s Head of Corporate Programmes told waiting objectors that the meeting is full, and that if people put their names on a list then they would be admitted on a one-in, one-out basis. He apologised to objectors and explained that “We weren’t expecting to completely sell out”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHUSIcLIons

Fellow objector and MP Simon Hughes later arrived to find objectors barred from the meeting, and immediately tweeted Peter John to complain about the situation.

After much debate with officials, the planning committee’s legal officer finally intervened and the meeting was forced into recess. The 30 or so objectors who had stayed in the lobby, were then finally admitted at around 9pm - 3 hours into the hearing.

Those objectors who had been fortunate enough to gain entry at the beginning of the meeting, made the most of the ridiculous 5 minutes allocated between them in which to make their representations.

Among these were Jerry Flynn speaking on behalf of the Elephant Amenity Network and Adrian Glasspool representing the Heygate residents.

In answer to questions, Flynn made a number of points including: concerns surrounding the large number of car-parking spaces proposed; privatisation of public realm; lack of clarity in the developer’s promise to retain some of the trees; lack of any renewable energy. His major two concerns though, were the masterplan proposal for just 71 social rented homes, and whether the scheme was actually financially viable - the report on the scheme described it as representing a ‘very big risk’ for the developer.

Glasspool objected that Heygate residents had originally been promised new homes in the development, but that the 71 social rented units proposed wouldn’t be sufficient to honour this pledge. He also pointed out that despite assurances that all of the Heygate’s 1,000 social housing units would be replaced as part of the scheme, only 209 social rented units had been completed to date - (according to page 8 of the officer’s report addendum).

Frustrated that such little time had been allocated for objectors to speak, some residents had prepared placards outlining their concerns. Planning Committee chair Cllr Nick Dolezal immediately halted proceedings and ordered those holding placards to leave the room.

The meeting reconvened after Dave Walker from Southwark Mediation Service was able to persuade objectors to lower their placards. Those privy to the proceedings witnessed the expected approval after the committee accepted Lendlease’s assurances that they could indeed deliver the scheme despite the risk. The application went on to be approved with councillors predictably voting along party lines, with the exception of Cllr Crookshank-Hilton who abstained.

Jerry Flynn’s reaction to the decision was emphatic: “This is very bad news for anyone desperate for a home in Southwark. The so-called ‘affordable rent’ homes will be half market rent, at least £50 a week more expensive than council rents – how could anyone who used to live on the Heygate afford that?. There are more planning applications for the Heygate in the pipeline – they must be rejected unless they have cheaper social rented homes.”

Simon Hughes summed up the decision in an interview with London SE1 “Sadly, many people will go short of affordable housing in and around the Elephant because the council weren’t tougher with the developers. It is not surprising that there was - peaceful - civil disobedience when so many people feel so strongly that this does not deliver the housing and the balanced scheme, which they have fought for for so long.”

Chris Mead, Chair of the Wansey Street Tenants and Residents Association issued the following comment: “As Chair of the Wansey Street TRA, I am furious that a number of Wansey Street residents (myself included) were barred from the Heygate master-plan committee meeting on Tuesday evening. Wansey Street directly borders the Heygate development area, and residents have genuine and reasonable concerns about aspects of the planning application; those concerns continue to be ignored and remain without receiving a satisfactory answer. Despite receiving over 200 objections from the wider community, less than 50 seats were provisioned for the public at the largest planning application review meeting in Southwark Council’s history. At the least, this was incompetent by Council Officers and the meeting’s Chairman, or at worst, a contrivance to exclude the public from what is supposed to be a transparent and democratic process.”

SE17 resident Marie Cane was one of the objectors holding up placards - she explained: “the committee gave us just 5 minutes for 300 objectors to state their case. This is particularly shameful as this is the largest planning application ever submitted to the council. We have been silenced by the council, so we decided to stage a silent protest. We simply wanted committee members to remember the Council’s own policy requirements. We are not against change; all we want are guarantees built into this masterplan - guarantees that the council would have required on any other development in the borough.”

Objectors had proposed a number of planning conditions upon this application, i.e. that the park should be managed by a trust, that a detailed RPA survey should be undertaken for the trees, etc.

It was not made clear at the end of the meeting which of these, if any, were adopted.

We were expecting a sell out, but - in the words of Southwark’s Head of Corporate Programmes: we weren’t expecting a complete sell out..

Lewisham Hospital. Labour Party must come clean with voters

With  the Labour Party seeking to win votes with the clear anger from Lewisham residents at the proposals to Close Lewisham Hospital, it must come clean and state publicly that the PFI contracts it pushed ahead with in Goverment, and which has lead to the South East london area health trust going bust must be banned and the Labour party locally should put forward a motion to the Labour Party leadership calling on Labour to throw out the Closure plans if they win in 2015.
At present the Labour party is keeping quiet about its roll in the Hospital Closure and has done as much as it can to cover its tracks on the PFI scandle, but it cannot keep saying it will save our Hospital, When if we had a Labour Goverment today or in 2015 the Hospital would still close. This is very cheap politcal campaigning and i hope Labour voters can see through this and not vote Labour.
Is it really so hard for the Labour party to be Honest?
Is it really so hard to state that if they were in Goverment , Lewisham Hospital would be safe?
People Before Profit also wish to see PFI contracts scrapped as the Goverment has done with PPI, but as PFI is so much loved by Labour this is not likely, Labour Lewisham has PFI debt of over 1.4 Billion, Yes Lewisham, This sounds like the debt of a third world nation, But good old Labour Lewisham has been able to run up a debt of this scale, because far to many Lewisham Voters, vote Labour without any thought or reason, Many just because that is what they have always done. Result, Closure of Services, Savage cuts, just to pay the debts on PFI.
Sign the online stop PFI petition;
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/42460

New Cross Credit Union ; Could do better

Anyone seeking to Contact New Cross Credit Union by Phone may find it an impossible job.
 I have spent 10 days trying to call them so i can get information to give out to the huge numbers of people coming into our food bank, a working credit Union would be perfect for them, and yet the phone is picked up, and the mail box is full som you are unable to leave a message, access is further stopped by lack of an email contact.
Whilst Credit Unions should be the future for people on low incomes, they must up the game, this level of service is shameful and it never ceases to amaze me the poor level, of service the people most in need get, Be it From Lewisham council , Charities set up to help people with special needs and others.
As i almost daily are seeking help from someone to help one of the ever increasing clients that seek my help and are staggered by the expectation that if you are poor or in need this is acceptable.
 I will go in in person to the New Cross Credit Union in the Hope it is easier to make Contact.

Joan Ruddock MP. Who is best Placed to win the seat?

Joan Ruddock, a once great local MP has stated she will be standing down as our MP at the next election in 2015.
Sadly the Labour party is no more a party of the people and Joan Ruddocks life time campaigning on Equality  has been traded for a Damehood and a seat in the House of Lords,  insureing years of princeple campaigning on equality flushed down the toilet as she has given up Deptford for the comfort of a seat in the House of Lords.
With People Before Profit constantly on her back from Convoy Wharf, betting Shops and the housing campaign and much more , the profile of People Before Profit in the save the Lewisham hospital campaign may have hit home that come the next election it was not a sure thing that Labour party would win.
These days only the foolish and stupid vote Labour.
Expect after the next round of local elections to see candidate from People Before Profit selected, they may be a joint People Before Profit/ Socialist  Alliance  depending on outcome in 2014.
 could even be a Save the Hospital, Save our NHS candidate, as long as People Before Profit are part, they could secure first MP in the UK.
If you live in Deptford /New Cross you would be aware that the only people pushing flyers through your letter box, and leading local Campaigns are People Before Profit so clearly  best placed to win, the best choice we have.in Mays GLA elections, People before profit came a Clear second to Labour in Deptford.
Barbara Raymond has been a community activist in Deptford since the 1950s, she is one of the most amazing people you are ever likely to meet and inspires hundreds and standing with Me on the Schools Campaign we came second at the elections before last before people Before Profit was Founded. With 12 years of hard work in Deptford and New Cross and will a new Labour Candidate with no personal vote, this seat will be Historic if People Can pull this off.
Ireland has just Elected its first 2 People Before Profit MPs and a dozen local Councillors first time round. With the public fed up to the back Teeth with Labour and Conservative , and with no fear of a split leading to a Tory win, this could be People Before Profits first seat and the start of a real political alternative across the UK.

Question Time from Lewisham. Hospital Demo hits the news

Last Nights Question time was still dominated by the Save Lewisham Campaign even though the BBC carefully vetted the seat allication to insure no local community activists could get in, in fear of the show being dominated by the Lewisham Hospital closure plans.
They may have stopped the regular band of ever increasing numbers of People before Profit activists and others, but the show was still very much about Lewisham hospital thanks to GPs calling panel members to brief them before arriving,  whilst well informed Save our Hospital and People before Profit members explained what has been going on as they entered, the result, getting coverage on last nights BBC news and both the Lib Dem Minister and the Conservative MP both being extremly angry at the closure proposals, and offering support, .whilst reminding the viewers that is was the Labour Party by introducing PFI contracts has lead to Health Trust Closures...both also stated they would be supporting the campaign and would Lobby Jeremy Hunt.
Sadly Jeremy Hunt is one of the worst sort of career politicians,
Most of us have not forgoton it was on his watch we lost all our Librarys.
Readers should also be  asking why the Labour  party is saying it supports Lewisham Hospital, but refuses to state that if they win in 2015 they would not except the Kershaw proposals,
 At present the Labour party has chosen to ignore the PFI contracts bringing  havic and closure  to public services and are using the hospital to win support but why will they not state publicly that if they were in Goverment TODAY they would kick out these plans and seek to scrap PFI contracts.
Thank goodness in Lewisham we have People Before Profit who will take thousands of Labour votes at next Elections if Labour fails to nationally say it will NOT close the Hospital.
Lewisham Voters will not vote for a Labour Party Campaigning to save our Hospital to secure votes, when it clearly would be doing exactly the same if in Goverment as the Conservatives by closing our Hospital.


MARCH TO SAVE THE HOSPITAL.

Saturday 26th January 12 noon Assemble by the Station/Police Station same as last March.

Lewisham Labour PFI Contracts bankrupting our Services.

Lewisham Council’s budget is facing a double whammy of reduced funding and  ballooning PFI contract payments.
The Council is under pressure to make savings and Mayor Steve Bullock has stated an estimated £40m in further savings are likely to be needed in the next two years (source: letter to residents Lewisham Life Winter 2012).
As budgets are squeezed and the Council faces reduced funding (or below inflation rate increases) from central government further cuts to services are likely to be exacerbated by increasing annual interest charge payments and overall payments due to PFI contractors over the next fifteen years. The Council currently has in place PFI contracts to the value of £1.2 billion.
Interest payable on these PFI contracts is stated in Lewisham Council’s annual accounts for 2011/12 as being £23m due in 2012/13. Total payments, including interest charges, due on PFI contracts in 2012/13 are projected to come in at £44m.
The Council currently has an annual total budget of approx. £280m.
From the Council’s own figures and projections the next few years will see its overall budget pressurised by increasing PFI costs. See table below.

From a total annual payment to PFI Contractors of £44m in 2012/13, annual payments will escalate to nearly £54m a year within the next 6-10 years and peak at £58m per annum in the early 2020s.
Interest payments are due to increase from £23m in 2012/13 to £26.5m per annum by 2014/15 and will stay at over £20m per annum until the early 2020s.
Total forecast accumulated interest charges for the duration of current PFI contracts is £452,925,000. The interest payments alone come to 36.5% of the total PFI contract liabilities.
The Council has been placed in the unenviable position of having to fund school building refurbishment, expansion or new schools through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. With the Council’s ability to borrow limited by central government it is faced with the stark choice of either signing up to BSF/PFI contracts or severely curtailing its schools programme.
The Council may be between a rock and a hard place come funding school regeneration and building, but it’s PFI contract for Downham Lifestyles leisure centre looks enormously expensive at a total cost of £68m over thirty years of which interest payments of £40m alone make up almost 2/3 thirds of the contract.
Lewisham’s PFI contract with Skanska for street lighting replacement and maintenance runs for twenty-five years at a total cost of £93m of which interest payments of £24m make up almost 25% of the contract.
There also arises the affordability of the current level of PFI liabilities. The requirement for budget cuts would seem to be, in part at least, a consequence of not only negligible annual increases in income (or even declining in real terms), but the escalating annual costs of servicing PFI liabilities. The Council has an annual income of approx. £280m yet has taken on PFI liabilities in excess of £1.2bn, an income-to-debt ratio of 4.5. Historically for a mortgage an individual would expect a lender to allow borrowing of 3.5 times annual income.
PFI contracts are widely viewed as poor value to the taxpayer and in Lewisham we are about to experience the strain these financial instruments will place on budgets for front line services in the coming years.

Lewisham Hospital Will lose A&E says Kershaw.

Lewisham Hospital and South London Healthcare Trust final proposals revealed - update

7:10am Tuesday 8th January 2013 in NewsBy Mark Chandler

Matthew Kershaw

LEWISHAM Hospital will still lose its A&E under final health proposals revealed today.

Despite thousands of people protesting and wide opposition from health professionals and politicians, trust administrator Matthew Kershaw has announced there were no "viable alternative solutions" to his initial recommendations.

Under the plans:

• Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup will become a "hub" for health and social care.
• Funds will be provided to cover costs of the PFI contracts at Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich and the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRU) in Farnborough.
• Obstetric maternity care will be based at King's, the PRU, Queen Elizabeth and St Thomas's. Lewisham will have a midwifery-led unit.
• Lewisham will become an urgent care centre.
• The PRU will be acquired by King's College Hospital NHS Trust.
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital will come together with Lewisham to create a new health trust.
• £74.9m in efficiency savings, including staff cuts and operational savings.
• Dissolution of the trust on June 1. A three year transformation programme would be funded by £55.3m in Government money.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust was the first ever to be placed in administration after it started losing around £1.3 million a week.

Draft proposals to downgrade Lewisham's A&E and close its maternity services, along with making Sidcup's Queen Mary's Hospital a health campus, were revealed last year.

Trust special administrator Matthew Kershaw submitted his final report to health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday.

He is due to make a decision by February 1.

Mr Kershaw denied today that the people of Lewisham - whose opposition had been overwhelming - had been ignored.

Related links

• Lewisham Hospital campaigners to stage Goldsmiths ...
• Lewisham Hospital: Lewisham Council opposes plans ...
• Video and pictures: Save Lewisham Hospital vigil b...

Atocareeu

Lew2013 in NewsBy Mark Chandler

Matthew Kershaw

LEW£55.3m in Government money.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust was the first ever to be placed in administration after it started losing around £1.3 million a week.

Draft proposals to downgrade Lewisham's A&E and close its maternity services, along with making Sidcup's Queen Mary's Hospital a health campus, were revealed last year.

Trust special administrator Matthew Kershaw submitted his final report to health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday.

He is due to make a decision by February 1.

Mr Kershaw denied today that the people of Lewisham - whose opposition had been overwhelming - had been ignored.

Related links

• Lewisham Hospital campaigners to stage Goldsmiths ...
• Lewisham Hospital: Lewisham Council opposes plans ...
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He said: "We make absolutely clear reference [in the report] to the strength of feeling from the people of Lewisham.

"We've been absolutely true to what people have said."

The adminstrator added: "There isn't a viable alternative solution made through that process."

He also admitted that the hospital system was currently under pressure, and said that changes would have to occur in the other sites, including an expansion of capacity at Queen Elizabeth and the Princess Royal, before action at Lewisham.

Mr Kershaw said: "I have said consistently that the status quo is not an option, and I believe these final, refined recommendations are the right ones, although I appreciate that some people will find them difficult to accept.

"I do believe that if implemented fully they will help deliver safe, high quality, affordable and sustainable services for the people of south east London into the future."

To see the full report go to www.tsa.nhs.uk

'Seriously flawed'

Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock said: "I feared all along that this process was set up to rush through ill-conceived proposals with no intention of listening to the views of local people, the people who use local health services and the people who work in our local health services. Today we have the confirmation.

"Mr Kershaw’s ears were closed. These were seriously flawed proposals in draft and they remain seriously flawed and dangerous proposals. The Secretary of State should reject them.

“I urge everyone who can to join the march on January 26 to show Jeremy Hunt how strongly we feel as a community about these proposals.”

A spokesman for Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust said: "Clearly, we cannot comment in detail on the report as we have not received a copy in advance, and need time to analyse it fully.

"We do support merging with Queen Elizabeth, which is one of the recommendations.  However, we do not agree with the TSA’s prescriptive approach to service change, which would result in local emergency services being closed and maternity services being downgraded.

"As a successful organisation, we have said we would like to determine the future of services ourselves, and we would include proper engagement with stakeholders and the public.

"We are grateful for the support we have received from patients, the public, GPs, healthcare professionals, MPs and partners."

Unsion branch secretary at Lewisham Hospital Conroy Lawrence said: "Staff are shocked but not surprised by the report.

"We know the overwhelming majority of clinical and public responses opposed closure of Lewisham Hospital A&E and it is therefore fundamentally undemocratic to simply ignore that mandate as this report effectively does"

"We have every reason to believe the people of Lewisham will now redouble their efforts to defend what is a popular and well respected hospital, against what is nothing less than a political attack upon an inner city community."

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Comments(10)

Polly Staight says... 
8:42am Tue 8 Jan 13

And after a Three month period of public discussion...

...We are going to go ahead and shaft them again.

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greenjack says... 
10:23am Tue 8 Jan 13

and I understand he has overspent investigating their overspend!! what a hypocritical waste of public money on something that has already been decided!!

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hansmum says... 
11:32am Tue 8 Jan 13

"Matthew Kershaw has announced there were no "viable alternative solutions" to his initial recommendations" Mr Kershaw had no intention of listening to the public. He was to go ahead with his proposals whatever the public had to say or suggest.

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Gypo.Joe says... 
11:45am Tue 8 Jan 13

Bend over grab a hold of ya ankles !!

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Tmcd says... 
12:31pm Tue 8 Jan 13

As everyone says above, what was the point of the public discussion. The proposed closure of Lewisham A&E has been objected to by near enough all local councils and the public. It would be interesting to know what the cost difference would be between an "urgent care centre" and an A&E department?

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greenjack says... 
12:49pm Tue 8 Jan 13

what has happened to the comments?

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greenjack says... 
12:51pm Tue 8 Jan 13

OK, I can see them again now :)

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goldenbroomboy says... 
1:06pm Tue 8 Jan 13

What about Beckenham Beacon?

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Virtual-Monster says... 
1:19pm Tue 8 Jan 13

The biggest failure in all of this is that once again we are placing money above health of the people who live in Greenwich, Lewisham and Bexley.

Year on year, health care provision should be improving not being cut to the bone by bean counters who are just worried about pleasing their political masters.

We need improved health services in this area run by people who actually care about the people who need to access services.

Stop making health about money, health care should be about just that HEALTH and CARE!

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greenjack says... 
1:41pm Tue 8 Jan 13

goldenbroomboy wrote:
What about Beckenham Beacon?

The proposal is that Beckenham Beacon is established as a Planned
Care Centre. I think this then means that other services are transfered to PRU.

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