The Scholar Green Health Centre

The first thing to say about the proposed Health Centre in Scholar Green is that I recognise it is a divisive issue. The shouting at Parish Council meetings and the numerous phone calls are proof enough! It is a shame that whatever happens, so many people will be disappointed by the result.

I have so far read numerous pieces of literature in favour and against the proposed developments. SGGFA have a website here www.sggfa.co.uk. Save our Surgery (SOS) have produced some excellent and thought provoking material.

The capital cost of the proposed new Health Centre will be funded from a new housing development at Scholar Green. Many local residents are against the housing estate, for all the usual reasons! SGGFA suggest a different site which SOS claim is not big enough. The local PCT promised to bring forward documents to prove this, but I have not had sight of these yet.

On the positive side is the fact that there is a new Health Centre on offer for an important rural community. It will be safe, modern and massively expand the medical options available to local population.

And yet the concerns still remain as to whether the "price" (around fifty houses on what is now a green field) is worth paying. Without evaluation of the alternative garage site proposed by SGGFA, it is hard to know. The problem with the garage site is that it seems to rely on an independent pharmacy for funding the capital cost of the land. This means that Drs Patterson and Co would not be able to run their profitable in house pharmacy business. Local residents allege that this is why they will not support the garage site option : Money!.. Divisive to the last... An extra frustration is that the accounts for Drs Patterson and Partners are not a matter of public record, despite the practice being publicly funded. So we can never know just *how* much money Patterson et al would lose in the event of being forced to use the garage site. Makes the conflict of interest hard to quantify.

So the planning committee decision is due soon. I intend to speak there to try to describe the issues at stake. I will report here about how it all goes.

Manifesto done

The manifesto for I'm a Councillor is done. Hopefully it will win me some votes. Or maybe I want to win less votes if I don't want to get evicted. Not quite sure how it works yet.

Today I will start to work on my first Blog post about the proposed health centre in Scholar Green. It is a topic that is extremely controversial. I have not yet fully formed my view, but I think it is worth stating some of the pros and cons up front, ready for all the heated debate at the next planning meeting!

Big Vote

I seem to have rather haplessly got myself involved in I'm a Councillor Get Me Out of Here. You can see it here :

http://www.bigvote.org.uk/?lid=8059

I am really note sure what to expect but it seems a great chance to get young people involved in some of the issues of the day. I am not sure the web site looks very "Web 2.0" but there is always time.

I will try to keep the Blog updated with the big topics from Big Vote.

Maintenance

There seem to be a few tree and bush maintenance issues in the ward at the moment. I have had a number of phone calls about this, particularly in the Holehouse Lane area. At the Parish Council meeting last week there were comments about bush maintenance near the bus shelter in Rode Heath. I will take this up with Cheshire County Council. Really they need to become more transparent about the way they handle all the complaints. There is no easy way to tell whether and when they will take action.

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to the Largelistens Blog. The idea is to give you reasonably up to date view of issues for Odd Rode, the area that I represent on Congleton Borough Council.

If you need to get in touch with me you can call me on 07909 948 204 or please post a comment to the Blog.