Community Hospital Consultation

I’m sitting in the Assembly Rooms at a supposed consultation on the future of community hospital beds in North Devon. I’m disappointed, actually I’m more than disappointed I’m furious, that two new options have suddenly appeared: a. closing all the community hospital beds and having all the beds at the district hospital and b. keeping beds at one community hospital and others at the district hospital. This is not a consultation in the accepted sense of the term!

Garden ASBO

ASBO at the Gwythers

It appears that ASBOs (Anti- Social Behaviour Orders) can be used in many different ways.

The owner of 17 The Gwythers has been issued with an ASBO to ensure that the Japanese Knotweed which is flourishing in the front garden is removed.

Recent Planning Decisions

The McCarthy & Stone development of 34 retirement apartments has been given planning approval,

The development by North Devon Homes at the end of Kingsway has also been given approval, albeit for a scaled back version: rather than two houses, the development will now consist  of one bungalow.

North Devon Council planning committee also approved the demolition of garages and their replacement by seven dwellings in Churchill Crescent.

Road Closures

Signs at top of New Road:

Road Closure Sign Top of New Road

I wonder where the road is actually closed.?

Certainly not between the top of New Road and Gwythers, as there’s no sign of any roadworks along that stretch.

By Gwythers there is yet another sign which again says “Road Ahead Closed”:

Road Closure Sign Gwythers

And further along Alswear New Road yet another, this time with a lorry sailing past, with still no sign of any road closure:

Road Closure Sign Alswear New Road

So where exactly is the road closed?

Don’t keep us guessing Devon County Council, make the effort to tell us where the road is actually closed!

Rubbish, Rubbish Everywhere

This is how the South Molton Lorry Park looked late on Monday afternoon:

Recycling Rubbish in Lorry Park 1

Recycling Rubbish in Lorry Park 2

Visitors to South Molton parking in the Central Car Park have to walk through this area to reach the town centre.

Rubbish never gives a good impression and this amount of rubbish gives a very bad impression indeed.

I believe that it’s totally unacceptable for the District Council to allow this to happen.

Sheep Pen Woes

On Tuesday 27 July North Devon Council issued a press release with the title “Old sheep pens demolished to make way for parking in South Molton”.

You might think from that title that the sheep pens had in fact already been demolished. How wrong you would be.

The press release then went on to say “Redundant sheep pens in South Molton are being removed to provide extra parking in the town.” So they haven’t been demolished at all but are going to be demolished. Something entirely different.

The last sentence of the press release reads “Work will begin today (Monday 27 July) and will take six weeks to complete.”

It’s now Monday 10 August, two weeks later, and work still hasn’t started.

The District Council first promised to do this work 14 years ago. I’m wondering when they’ll actually get round to doing something.

Bonkers

Following a recent spate of attacks by seagulls, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have issued this advice:

“If people want to take further precautions, they can put on a hooded sweatshirt or hat or open an umbrella to deter ‘aggressive’ birds.”

In 2011 in their animal shelters in Virginia PETA had 760 dogs impounded of which they killed 713 or 94% . Of their 1,211 impounded cats they killed 1,198 or 99%!

If any kennels in the UK had such a lamentable record they would rightly be ostracised.  Unfortunately PETA appear to go from strength-to-strength.

 

 

 

 

Greedy or Not?

Tube drivers in London have gone on strike again protesting about the introduction of all night tube services.

The all-night services will only run on Friday and Saturday nights, and only on five lines: the Jubilee, Victoria, and most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines.

Currently tube drivers work a 36 hour week with 43 days of annual leave (including bank holidays). Newly-qualified tube drivers start on £49,673 a year excluding overtime.  They get a good pension and also get free travel passes for themselves and one other nominated person.

All that after starting on £24,133 at the beginning of their 16 week training period!

It’s no wonder that Transport for London (TfL) haven’t had to advertise externally for tube drivers for four years.

I leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves whether the tube drivers are being greedy or not.

I know what I think.

 

Closure of Community Hospital Beds

The public consultation regarding the future location of community hospital beds is now entering its final phase.

There will be a series of public meetings where people can drop in, see a presentation, and join a round table discussion about the options available and how they were reached.

People will be asked for their preferred option and whether any alternatives should have been considered.

Sessions will be held at Holsworthy, Bideford, Ilfracombe and South Molton.

The South Molton session will be held in the Assembly Rooms on Tuesday 26 August.

The session for Ilfracombe will be held in the Landmark Theatre on Tuesday 18 August. That for Holsworthy will held on Thursday 20 August in the Holsworthy Memorial Hall and the Bideford session will be held in Stucley Hall, Bideford College on Thursday 27 August.

There will be three identical sessions on each date, starting at 3.30pm, 5pm and 6.30pm.

For more information have a look at the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust website here.