CONSERVATIVES AT COUNTY HALL IN A SHAMBLES OVER FIRE STATION
Following a meeting with local residents about withdrawal of the application for Fire Station Anne Lee, Woking Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary Spokesperson, said:
Following a meeting with local residents about withdrawal of the application for Fire Station Anne Lee, Woking Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary Spokesperson, said:
"I think politics would be much better if more senior politicians would answer questions just like this" Rt Hon Charles Kennedy M.P., Leader of the Liberal Democrats said when he was asked if he was nervous about confronting 150 pupils at Woking College. Students from a number of local schools and Woking College itself listened to him explain why the Liberal Democrats were concentrating on issues such as free tuition for students, free personal care for the elderly and safeguarding the environment for future generations.
"How will my life be different if I vote in a Liberal Democrat Government?", "What do you want for the armed forces?", "Where do you stand on the National Health Service?", "Should I vote for the person I like, or the policies they represent?" were just some of the many questions that were thrown at Dr Anne Lee, Woking's Parliamentary Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, when she spoke to 120 sixth formers at Sir William Perkins school in Chertsey.
Worried residents in Maybury and Woodham have been contacting Anne Lee and asking for her help about the proposal for an anaerobic digestion and gasification plant to be built in the industrial estate at Monument Way.
"The Adult and Community Care Committee kept hearing about poor service caused by staffing problems," County Councillor Diana Smith explained. "So it set up a task group to look at Recruitment and Retention. Proper statistics were hard to come by. We eventually got figures for the reported high vacancy rates in 'front line' teams, from 18% among the essential Home Based Care staff to 31% of highly-skilled Occupational Therapists. We heard of one team of Occupational Therapists entirely consisting of stand-ins. Looked at in purely economic terms, terms the Conservative Executive understands, we found under-staffing led to a big bill for agency staff, over 40% of Surrey's total. The costs in human terms are don't get counted, but they include de facto rationing of care for the people who need it, lack of continuity of care, and stress for staff. Sickness rates are higher among Adults and Community Care staff than in any other Surrey service."
In launching the Inquiry, which is being delivered to 40,000 homes in Woking, Dr Anne Lee said: "people have contacted me with a range of concerns about health-care provision across the Borough. Most people are complimentary about the care they have received from doctors and nurses. Unfortunately they are still reporting worries about waiting times for specialist appointments, the availability of specialist equipment at St Peters and concerns about the shortage of GPs and national health dentists.
Woking Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Spokesperson, Dr Anne Lee, said: Cllr Rosie Sharpley (Liberal Democrat Councillor for Goldsworth East) has tirelessly campaigned for her residents to try to make the waste collection scheme respond to their needs. The Council Meeting last night proved her right. The Conservative led Executive admitted that they had been incompetent when the leader, Conservative Councillor Jim Armitage said "we did make mistakes in not allocating resources for the pilot...we got it wrong".
Anne Lee said "The SEERA meeting, at the H G Wells Centre in Woking on 29th November, brought home to us how unaccountable this Quango is. It is a half-baked idea of devolution. Votes are cast by vested interests (eg the CBI and the National Housing Federation) and various county councillors. It is chaired by a Conservative County Councillor.
Dr Anne Lee said: "Access to health-care is vital. There is a pincer movement in health care happening in Woking. There is a shortage of GP's in Woking, which means that more people are going to use the walk-in centre at the Community Hospital.
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