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Craven Services
The Craven Herald - January 2007
Just what can we expect for public services in Craven? The Government recites its usual mantra about increased spending (Tony Blair seems determined to fight the 1997 election over again rather than to address today’s problems) but seems unable to grasp the feeling in many rural areas that there is a constant draining away of services which matter most to people and often to the oldest and most vulnerable people.
Two particular services are now at the forefront of concern. The Post Office is to close up to 2,500 post offices of which half will be in rural areas. In remote rural areas it expects that a post office will be within six miles of 95 per cent of the population. Has anyone in Government actually set out to travel six miles in Craven, in winter, without a car perhaps, knowing that the most intensive users of post offices are the most vulnerable people – something the National Audit Office recently highlighted?
Yes, there will be a mobile “outreach” service, but who will design its routes and how often will it turn up? Of course the network must change – technology does dictate adaptation. But many small businesses who form the lynch-pin of a village must feel the chill winds of abandonment.
The second issue is medical care. The Government decided to create huge new commissioning bodies for healthcare. In the case of Yorkshire the new Primary Care Trust is the third biggest in the country. It has also acquired the biggest deficit in the country - £45m- largely run up by the York and Selby and Scarborough and Whitby pre-merger PCTs. So whichever way we stack up the figures the people of Craven are literally picking up the bills for deficits for which they bear no responsibility.
The Skipton hospital development is now so “back” on the back-burner (the “killer fact” for the PCT seems to be the projected annual running costs of up to £1m) that it is barely a glimmer in the eye. The same goes for Castleberg. We already know that both Castleberg and Ripon community hospitals have been down-sized because the Government has failed totally to make the money for health follow the patient.
Care does not stand still. Of course people should go to hospital when there is no alternative: home care is better than hospital care in many circumstances other than acute interventions. The PCT must achieve the best type and place for care not because of economies but because it makes the best sense. But the sense that promises are not being kept and legitimate hopes are being frustrated is understandable and inevitable.
Of course the countryside poses problems for service providers: anyone who moves to a village and expects suburban facilities is living in fantasy world. The schools are, generally, outstanding. There is a framework of community which provides real solidarity. There is a real attempt to provide more affordable housing (and “affordable” is a very moveable feast).
But my experience as constituency MP is that my efforts are almost always directed at preventing some withdrawal of service from taking place, mitigating the consequences, helping deal with the consequences. The rural areas are resilient and independent-minded. They don’t want privileged status, just a fair crack of the whip.
I just don’t think Government is listening.
© The Craven Herald
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