Redlands Liberal Democrats

A problem shared (is a problem halved): Hospital parking

Yesterday afternoon Kirsten, Glenn and I sat down with the estates & facilities manager of the Royal Berks Hospital and senior officers from Reading Borough Council's transport team to discuss parking matters.

I set this meeting up in attempt to get a better dialogue going between RBC and the RBH about how to reduce pressure on parking in local roads around the Hospital.

The University of Reading is also a key player in this discussion and as I pointed out in December itsplan to redevelop it's Mansfield Hall campus will reduce available parking for Hospital staff.

The meeting was very friendly and productive. We are sympathetic as councillors to the plight of the Hospital.

However we are reaching saturation point in a number of local roads from Alexandra Road to Allcroft Road where parking is unrestricted or only partly restricted with commuters leaving their cars for long periods in many streets, students and University staff parking around the campus and worshippers at the Mosque seeking parking too.

This makes life very difficult for residents who wish to park and for pedestrians and cyclists. Road safety around Addington Road and Craven Road is a real concern and there have been a number of accidents.

As ward councillors our primary responsibility are to ensure safe roads for residents and as far as possible to ensure their interests are represented.

At the meeting we heard that Hospital is currently investigating a number of options including expanding the multi-storey car park and leasing spaces in other Town Centre car parks. I was pleased to hear the Hospital management are in talks with the Carbon Trust and have signed up to a very challenging target to dramatically reduce emissions.

RBH management have also recently cut down the number of people who are eligible to receive parking permits.Obviously, the trouble with that is that staff are then more likely to park in local roads.

It sounds as though planning applications could be on the horizon (subject to RBH having the cash to embark on this kind of project).

We made a plea for the Hospital to consult residents and councillors as early as possible - an approach the University never seems to manage, despite regular feedback from us over the years.

However, as Kirsten pointed out there is no "one-size fits all" solution to the problem of parking.  We have limited road space in Redlands, and as officers are always keen to point out to us "no-one has a right to a parking space".

A park and ride scheme was tried by the RBH but it was dropped as it was not a success. RBC working with the RBH and UoR need to make it more attractive for people to use alternative modes of transport. But more needs to be done to make this a reality.

This is about behaviour change - and attitudes are hard to shift.

But there are things that can be done including creating better cycle lanes, better bus services and other ideas such as car-sharing and car clubs - something we have campaigned for.

Interestingly, the officer from the RBH said that car-sharing during the recent bad weather period increased markedly with many members of staff picking up colleagues on their way into work.

RBC Officersreported to us in the meeting that bus passenger numbers also went up during this period. I hope this will encourage more people to consider sharing their car or taking a bus, but I can't help but think that people will go back to driving in.

One very positive thing to come out of the meeting is that RBC officers are now going to liaise with RBH and UoR officers to bring them into a network of South Reading businesses/stakeholders to look at ways of working together to tackle parking collectively - after all they all share the same road space.

This isn't rocket science but it's amazing how many times as a councillor you find officers in public bodies working in silos.

I think everyone involved thought the meeting was a very good idea. The aim was not to give the Hospital are hard time - quite the reverse - but to get a better understanding of the issues the Hospital is facing, so we can work towards finding solutions.

The officer from the RBH also raised a number of problems and issues the Hospital is facing including Taxis parking on yellow lines (which is making it difficult for ambulances to get in and out).

At the end of the meeting we also managed to touch on the thorny problem of cigarette litter - something I have raised with the Hospital a number of times. There is way too much litter around Redlands Road linked to people smoking. Noises from the RBH were more positive on dealing with this issue.

I also raised once again the possibility of installing a small recycling centre on the Hospital grounds for staff, visitors and local residents.

Next week Glenn and I are taking to the streets with RBC officers to look at ways of reducing parking problems for residents who live around Lydford Road.

Watch this space for updates!

Severe weather update (and other news)

We hope you've been coping during this extended period of extraordinary weather.

I'm pleased to say the burst water main on London Road we reported on Friday was fixed very rapidly by Thames Water.

We hope you were not one of the thousands of households in Redlands who were without water for several hours and you were not too badly affected.

Kirsten and I were in close touch with Thames Water throughout the incident and we were very impressed with the quick, calm and professional way they sorted the problems out.

I picked up a complaint over the weekend from a constituent that the on campus car parks and access roads leading to Foxhill House/Child's Hall had not been cleared of snow by Reading University.

Given that the University term starts next week it was a shame the University didn't act more quickly to keep this area clear.

These problems led to students and their parents parking around the Foxhill entrance on double yellow lines etc making entrance quite hazardous and making getting around local roads even more difficult.

We'll be raising this urgently with Reading University to try and get this sorted.

I was in the Town Centre on Friday during the day and I was pleased to see Council teams out clearing the large slabs of ice that had formed both with trucks and manually.

It seemed as though things were thawing a bit this morning (although there has been snow in places tonight) - let's hope we don't get more bad weather this week.

Many roads and pavements around Redlands remain very icy and slippery: please take extra care.

We received this severe weather update from Reading Borough Council earlier today:

'Highways and Transport

Highways staff worked in the town centre yesterday manually clearing  walkways and JCB's and other vehicles are still being deployed to clear bus routes where possible.

Reading Buses are getting back to normal check update www.reading-buses.co.uk

Waste and recycling

The Bin collections, the situation will be assessed tomorrow

The Household Waste Recycling Centre has reopened

Schools/Education

Reading's secondary schools are aiming to open on Monday (January 11) for students who are due to take modular GCSE, A Level and A/S Level exams next week and we will be supporting the schools by are clearing pedestrian access around the schools.

Decisions will be made by individual schools as to whether they will open on Monday.

Housing and Community Care

Over the weekend  Housing and Community Care Staff have been supported by teams from other directorates, many using their own vehicles, in the delivery of Meals on Wheels and shopping trips to ensure service users have essential provisions. 
More deliveries have taken place to Sheltered Housing over the weekend

Emergency Cover

The Emergency Operations Centre has been open and dealing with issues as there are reported (9am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday)
An Emergency Planning conference call will take place tonight
Emergency Planning Meeting will take place at 10.30am and 3pm on Monday"

And finally in other news... you may have heard that I have been selectedto fight Reading West constituency for the Lib Dems at the next General Election.

Readers of this blog will know I have been campaigning for several years to improve the lives of local residents in Redlands and across Reading.

The opportunity to stand for Parliament came out of the blue after the previous candidate unexpectedly resigned and I jumped at the chance to help campaign on a national stage for a better quality of life for local people in Reading.

I'm not one of those people who got into politics because they liked the sound of their own voice.

I want to become an MP to help get the voices of ordinary people in Reading heard in Westminster.

And there are so many issues and problems in Reading that need sorting out.

Better housing, reducing health inequality and effective action against anti-social behaviour - these are a few of the issues that get me out of bed in the morning and the areas I feel most passionate about.

I feel strongly that we need a fairer, more just society, and to make sure the poor and vulnerable don't get overlooked.

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have put fairness at the heart of all Lib Dem polices.

Labour politicians nationally and locally have let a lot of local people down over the past few years in Reading and people I speak to are looking for an alternative (and it's not the Tories!)

Martin Salter has been a hardworking MP who is popular with many people but he has already announced that he will be retiring at the next election.

People in Reading West are looking to elect a new local champion - someone who will stand up for them and their interests.

I have already demonstrated my ability to campaign for people of all backgrounds and all ages all year round, on the issues that matter.

I'm part of the local team providing the only really effective opposition to Labour-run Reading Borough Council on a range of issues.

And in case you were wondering - I remain as I always have been - totally, 100% committed to my constituents in Redlands, and, as Kirsten blogged a few weeks ago I will be defending my Council seat in May.

I have worked hard as a councillor since I was elected in 2006 and I will continue to work hard alongside my  ward colleagues to get things done for the  local people who elected me.

I would like to say a special thank you to my ward colleagues Kirsten and Glenn for their unfaltering support (they are the best ward colleagues anyone could ask for), as well as my Council group colleagues and local Party for supporting me throughout the selection process, and finally a massive thank you to all the people who have contacted me over the weekend to express their support and to wish me luck.

Exciting times!

Action needed to reverse the childhood obesity trend in Reading

Following my post last week about the coming to light of more evidence of alarming health inequality in Reading, children's health in our area was in the news again today with the publication of damning statistics relating to childhood obesity.

This time the data (published by the NHS Information Centre) showed that 35% of 10 and 11 year olds in Reading are overweight or obese.

This is a tragedy for the children and families affected - obese children are more likely than other children to suffer poor health  to experience bullying.

But these problems go deeper and wider than just individual families. They form part of a worrying picture about public health in Reading.

These stats underline the fact that public health in Reading is nowhere near as good as other parts of the South East. 

And If we believe a healthy population is also happy population we should be worried about this.

It follows the publication in July of the local 'health profile' of our Borough which painted a very mixed picture with health in wealthier parts of the Borough markedly better than other areas of our Town.

Today's news comes the day after a national study on the topic published by researchers at University College London found more evidence linking childhood obesity to deprivation.

It's not surprising, therefore, that childhood obesity is a big problem in Reading (please excuse the pun) which is a very divided place wealth and health-wise.

Reading - where there are pockets of real deprivation and some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country.

Childhood obesity was one of the health indicators we looked at as part of our recent joint scrutiny review into children's health.

Our review focussed on the linkages between poverty and children's health.

And the prevalence of childhood obesity in Reading is without question one of the clearest indicators of Labour's failure to allieviate child poverty locally.

At the second scrutiny review meeting we were presented with pages of details about PCT and RBC strategies and programmes designed to improve child health.

As councillors, we found it hard to measure the impact: was the money spent actually making a difference? Were the worst-off families getting access to support they needed? How does the public know the answers to these questions if we  as locally elected-representatives can't always get the information we need?

As I mentioned last week, the poverty gap in England - and in Reading - is widening not closing.

This is an urgent issue and it needs a much greater focus at a neighbourhood level from the Labour-run administration and the primary care trust if we are going to reverse the trend.

A lot of good work has gone on in Reading to improve the quality of food available in schools.

However, the latest data on childhood obesity in Reading suggests that a lot more effort is needed if we are going to reverse this worrying trend.

We need to look at issues like how easy is it for families to get access to affordable healthy food, exercise and support.

I am concerned that in areas like South Reading some of these things are hard to come by for families on low incomes.

I feel passionately that now this issue is finally on the agenda we must not lose momentum on the need to tackle child poverty and poor child health.

With this in mind I wrote to senior officers and councillors yesterday to draw their attention to the childhood obesity figures and to ask them what specific activities are going on to address this problem.

My aim is to get the issue right to the top of the agenda for the Local Strategic Partnership next year, and to do some further work in scrutiny to identify what we need to do to improve child health in the poorest parts of the Borough.

It's an ambitious aim, but we have to set our sights higher if we are going to improve the health of children in Reading.

Council and RBH must act to tackle hospital parking problems

Last September I blogged about parking problems around the Royal Berks Hospital on London Road.

Residents living in streets around the edge of the Hospital struggle to park in their own road - this is because there are simply not enough parking spaces at the Hospital to accomodate staff and visitors

Roads such as Addington Road bear the brunt of overspill paring connected to the RBH.

The local parking situation is bad enough for residents in the area as it is with the University nearby and the fact that Redlands is very close to Town so is popular with shoppers and commuters looking for 'free' parking.

I am aware that Hospital parking problems were raised as an issue yet again at the last meeting of the Redlands Neighbourhood Action Group - a group that was set up to tackle crime problems! This give you an idea of the frustration felt by local residents.

And today the issue has flared up in the local press again with patients complaining there are not enough parking spaces at the Hospital.

We sympathise with them. But a better balance must be struck between the needs of the local communty and the needs of the Hospital visitors, patients and staff.

Also, any solution should seek to address parking problems in the immediate area - not just individual streets.

The Labour-run Council's piecemeal approach to dealing with parking problems street by street just displaces cars from one street to another.

We have had individual successes - such as Glenn's win for residents struggling to park in in New Road, but as councillors we are campaigning for area-based, holistic solution to the problems we face.

And, as we have said many times this is not a problem the Hospital can solve alone.

The Council needs to be proactive in helping the Hospital finding a solution. Hospital managers are not experts on highways matters - they are in the business of running hospital.

We have made this point loud and clear to both sides at regular intervals (in meetings we have held) and it is clear that residents and patients are losing patience.

We called for the Redlands Road area to be included in the Council's A327 Corridor Study which is looking at ways to reduce traffic and improve congestion in and around Shinfield Road - Christchurch Road.

We have been disappointed that RBC officers have not brought forward proposals to include this bit of Redlands Road.

Last September the RBH took the decision to scrap it's park and ride bus service for staff.

While we understood that the continuation of this scheme was not financially viable for the Hospital, we were concerned about the impact this decision would have on local roads and residents.

I wrote to the Chief Operating Officer of the RBC, Patrick Johnson, at that time to try oulining the problems residents were facing calling for the Hospital to work with the Council towards a solution.

Sadly we are no further forward. Paul Birtwistle, Director of Estates and Facilities at the RBH is quoted in today's Get Reading article saying:

"We are just completing a major review of parking which has included staff re-applying for on-site permits. This will help us in better day-to-day management of our existing parking capacity.

“However, we are also examining a range of other options. These include renting additional car park spaces close to the hospital, promoting car sharing and other alternative ways of travelling to the hospital.

“The creation of additional spaces on the existing South Wing car park and providing parking at the rear of some of our properties in Craven Road are still options.”

It's good news that the RBH is at long last engaging with the need to tackle this problem. They have made positive noises before however so we need to get some momentum behind this latest review.

We must be realistic - in the current financial climate it will be difficult for the NHS to find cash for parking schemes. Reducing car trips to the Hospital makes financial and environmental sense.

However, there will aways be visitors to the Hospital who cannot avoid getting there by car.

I will be writing to him and the heads of planning and transport at Reading Borough Council to request that proposals be drawn up as soon as possible to address the obvious shortfall in parking spaces at the Hospital, and to give patients and residents some relief.

Health inequality in Reading the worst in Berkshire

Readers of this blog will know inequality - particuarly health inequality - in Reading is an issue that matters a great deal to me.

Since I took over as the Chair of the HHCC Scrutiny Panel in May 2008 I have been campaigning to raise the profile of this issue and to get the Labour-run Council and other partners to do more to close the gap in health outcomes between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods in the Town.

After 12 years of a Labour government and even longer of a Labour-controlled Council that gap has widened.

And local people are suffering as a result.

Today, an independent assessment published by the Audit Commission and other inspectorates has underlined the points I have been making in it's summary of the health profile of the local area:

'There are substantial inequalities between the most and least prosperous neighbourhoods in Reading. Poorer health, low levels of skills and persistent poverty are features of some of the most deprived parts of the town. Only 44 per cent of people feel they belong to their neighbourhood...

The gap in health between the most and least affluent areas of Reading is the largest in Berkshire. On average people in the poorest parts of Reading live six or seven year less than those in the wealthiest areas'

The inspectors hedge their bets and say 'it's too early to say' whether or not the work local bodies and partners i.e. Council and PCT are doing to reduce inequality is working.

I would argue the evidence is already staring us in the face here in Reading.

This is that Labour politicians have run out of ideas and energy needed to try and bring about the kind of changes that local people really need.

I am particularly worried about the impact that this is having on children's health - linked to poverty.

Our scrutiny review into this issue is ongoing and is putting a spotlight on improving outcomes for the neediest children and families in Reading.

While I think a lot of the work the Council does is well-intentioned and officers work very hard to deliver good services locally (which the inspectors have rightly praised),I think that the political leadership of the Council lacks the vision to tackle the big issues from housing to climate change.

You can read the inspector's report about the Reading area and the performance of the Council, the PCT and other partners on the new Oneplace website.

Nationally, the gap has widened too and a report' Monitoring poverty and social exclusion' published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last week provided yet more hard evidence that Labour has failed to deliver on it's promises on fairness and equality:

• The number of people unemployed or otherwise wanting work is the highest since 1997. The unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds is now higher than at any point since this series began in 1993.

• These increases did not begin with the onset of recession. Unemployment has been rising since 2005, and the young adult unemployment rate stopped falling as long ago as 2001.
• Even before the start of the recession, the number of people living in low-income households rose again in 2007/08. The number of people in low-income households is now as high as it was in 2000, having risen by 1.3m in the last three years.

• The number of children in low-income households where at least one adult works is, at 2.1m, the highest it has ever been. Half a million higher than in 2003/04, it is this increase that has stalled progress towards the Government's child poverty targets – again, prior to the recession.

As Nick Clegg said in PMQs earlier today millions of people have been let down by Labour.  

 And we know, thousands of them are living here, in Reading, in poverty and poor health.

To quote the Speaker: 'Mr Nick Clegg must be heard!' Fairness matters.

Reading health matters

I've already trailed a number of the items that were discussed at Scrutiny this evening.

We had a big agenda: 16 items spanning a wide range of health, housing and community care issues in Reading.

We kicked off with our scrutiny review of the local ambulance service which we launched after the recent 'weak' rating by the Care Quality Commission. This was trailed on BBC Radio Berkshire and Reading 107fm.

The Trust representatives appeared to be feeling bruised after getting criticised by three local authorities within South Central Region about performance in rural areas (notably Hampshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire).

We focussed on Reading issues (obviously) including questions about staffing, rising demand (5% in the last year)and how performance could be improved.

I'm grateful to Darren Bridgman, of the Bracknell Blog who attended the meeting and asked about staffing issues.

The other big item on our agenda was CQC's annual performance inspection of the Council's Community Care service.

As I mentioned recently there has been a step change in RBC's performance in this service area following last year's disappointing 1* rating.

The service is now rated 'performing well' by CQC. The star rating system has been dropped - councillors from all sides agreed tonight that this system had not benefited Reading (with it's focus on box-ticking).

HHCC Scrutiny Panel has played a key role in this turnaround: asking questions designed to get to the bottom of long-standing issues and driving improvement after years of complacency from Labour in Reading.

There are still two major areas where perfomance in this service lags behind other authorities: timeliness of social care assessments and delayed discharges from hospital.

I have actively campaigned for action on these issues in recent years.

And tonight I requested an update report be brought to our March meeting on how these issues are being tackled.

I pressed officers about the financial sustainability of the administration's plans for improving social care. With rising demand and increasing cost pressures this is a major issue. Inspectors noted in their report:

'Councillors and officers are clear that this [policy] was a planned, authorised and budgeted overspend to enable the council to deliver on ambitious plans. HOwever, it is important that in future years the improvements achieved in 2008/9 are sustained within the agreed year start budget allocation.'

This approach has been Labour's policy for years and I'm not convinced it's sustainable in the current financial climate. We need to anticipate demand better and redesign services to get the most for the residents - both in terms of quality and to achieve better value for money.

One of the other issues we discussed in detail at the meeting under the health bracket was so-called 'Talking Therapies' - a pilot programme introduced in Reading by the mental health trust, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, last November.

This programme won funding for improved access to psychological therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for people living in the Reading area.

Berkshire West PCT was one of 32 PCTs to pilot this project and it has been a terrific success.

We are very in lucky in Reading to get the chance to trial this programme. Media reports this week suggest it could be rolled out across the UK soon.

I put this issue on the agenda as I know that we must tackle poor mental health in Reading if we are going to improve public health and improve the quality of people's lives generally.

Earlier in the year I led a scrutiny review into concerns about mental health services for young people after local resident, Paul Farmer raised concerns with me as Chair.

Hospitalisation and medication are appropriate for some medical conditions, but not for all of them or for all patients.

This programme is specifically designed to help people suffering depression and anxiety disorders in Reading. 

Sadly these problems are very common - up to 15 per cent of the population suffer from these problems at any one time.

The 'Talking Therapies programme' is a radically different approach that is being rolled out in Job Centres, community centres and family centres across Reading.

And it is already having a really positive impact: 51% of patients who have been through the programme have recovered (50% is the national average). Other benefits that have been identified include:

• Better health and wellbeing
• High levels of satisfaction with the service received
• More choice and better accessibility to evidence-based services
• Helping people stay employed and able to participate in daily life better

There is clearly demand for these services in Reading - 1348 referrals have been received from doctors in the Reading area and 900 patients have been treated.

The team delivering the therapies are multi-lingual encouraging participation from people from a range of backgrounds and faiths.

i'm really pleased to see it is being extended: to include a 'Saturday Clinic' in Reading Walk-in health centre from Jan 2010. An employment co-ordinator and advisor is starting this month and a Post Natal Depression service is starting (also this month) in Whitley family centre.

Self-referral will soon be open to all and the Service is moving to a permanent base in Shinfield health centre from 16 December.

Access to good quality healthcare is a major issue in many parts of Reading so it's great to see these services at last being made widely available.

There has been much in the news this week about the link between poverty, worklessness and poor mental health.

Research has shown people living in deprived areas have been shown to suffer more severe mental and other health problems.

This can have a big knock on effect on other areas of people's lives - such as finding work.

In the past councilling and access to CBT has historically been in short-supply: expensive and limited to those who can afford it.

But programmes like this need to be extended to more people if we are going to find ways to reduce the number of people suffering from mental health problems and the issues that are closely linked to them.

Tackling these problems go to the heart of dealing with some of the major public health and quality of life issues in Reading.

To quote the experts on this health area we should be looking to support and sustain a 'mentally healthy' population in Reading.

These are not problems that can be solved over night we need to be imaginative and look at 'whole system' and 'whole person' or holistic - approaches.

We hear a lot about partnership working but there is no way that these public health issues can be tackled by one agency. They have an impact on all of us one way or another and they impact on health spending and Council spending in our area.

With this in mind, I will be writing to the Local Strategic Partnership highlighting this programme and urging RBC and Berkshire West PCT to continue to support it so that this good work can continue and more local people can gain access to this vitally important service.

I also plan to write to the Health Minister Andy Burnham drawing his attention to the success of this scheme and calling for continued financial support for it in the future.

Reading's 'weak' ambulance service under the spotlight

You may have read last month that the performance of our local ambulance service here in Reading was heavily criticised by inspectors. You can read the inspector's report here.

The South Central Ambulance Trust which runs the ambulance service is a relatively new organisation and covers a massive area - not just Reading, and not just Berkshire. 

As I've said before, due to a number of factors including its geographical location the population of Reading does not always get the provision of health services it really needs.

In the Lib Dems we want more accountability for health services and less 'postcode lotteries'. Where you live should not dictate the quality of health services you receive.

The Trust's headquarters are in Bicester (!) which give you an idea about how local they are.

Some more facts about the Trust:

• It was established on 1 July 2006 following the merger of four ambulance trusts in the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.
• This area covers approximately 3,554 sq miles with a resident population of over four million
• The Trust's emergency call centres handle more than 400,000 emergency and urgent calls a year.

The two main functions of the Trust are:

• the provision of an accident and emergency service to respond to 999 calls
• the Patient Transport Service

Bloggers in Bracknell recently raised the alarm about perfomance and staff shortages in their area.

Key concerns inspectors raised include response times by the Ambulance Trust to emergency calls from the public. These fell well short of national standards.

Overall, quality of services overall has gone down hill over the past two years - from 'good' to 'weak'.

The Trust responded to the criticism as follows:

"We fully accept the findings of the CQC AHC review for last year. Prior to the
publication of this report, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SCAS)
has already made significant improvements to address the areas highlighted by
the annual health check"

Read the statement in full here.

The reasons behind the problems identified by inspectors are no doubt complex and varied.

Things like Swine Flu could have an impact, for an example.

I really hope they are not linked to financial pressures - as these pressures are set to increase.

However, it's vitally important we get a better understanding of the challenges the Trust is facing so that any problems can be tackled swiftly.

Wearing my Chair of Scrutiny hat I have invited senior officers from the Trust to the next meeting of the Housing, Health and Community Care Panel in Reading on 8 December.

This is the only real opportunity we have in Reading to get some answers. We need reassurances too that people in Reading are getting a good service.

Find more details about this meeting in this RBC press release.

The meeting will be held in public at 6.30pm in the Kennet Room at the Civic Offices.

If you have any questions or concerns your would like to raise with the Trust at the meeting or you would like me to raise on your behalf please email me: redlandslibdems@hotmail.co.uk.

Campaigning for speedier care for the elderly and vulnerable in Reading

I went to visit a disabled constituent today who lives off Northumberland Avenue. She is a double amputee and is undergoing therapy for phantom pains in her limbs.

She was smiling.

On previous visits her face had been etched with pain.

I had reason to smile today too. I had spent two years trying to get her home kitted out so that she could get around in her wheelchair and finally things had been sorted by Ridgway, the contractor employed by Reading Borough Council to carry out home adaptations.

Before I had got involved my constituent had been sitting at home waiting and waiting for the Council to make the necessary improvements.

My constituent, Mrs D,  proudly showed me the ramp that had been built in the garden to enable her to get to her car (pictured).

The kitchen door had been replaced so that it is now wide enough to get her wheelchair in and out. And her kitchen window and units are now easy for her to reach.

 
All these changes - some small -  have enabled Mrs D to stay in her home and lead a full, independent life.

This is better for her, and ultimately better for the tax payer.

While the initial outlay for the adaptations are expensive they could save the Council more money in providing residential care for Mrs D in years to come.

The last two years has seen real improvements in the performance of Reading Borough Council's social care service.

This follows the publication last December by the then inspectorate of social care services, CSCI of a critical report of the Council's service, awarding them one star.

As an opposition councillor and Chair of Scrutiny I have no vested interested interest in defending the Labour-run Council's performance, but anyone who has been looking at the stats and following developments in this service must acknowledge that this bit of the Council is at last heading in the right direction.

The Housing, Health and Community Panel has played a major role in driving improvement of services for some of the most vulnerable people in Reading.

However, there is still a fair way to go.

One area I have been particularly interested in over the years as a councillor has been the time that residents have to wait for an assessment by an occupational therapist (OT).

These visits are crucial as they can result in making it easier for people to remain in the own homes and enjoy a better quality of life.

The inspection report published last year said that RBC lagged behind other authorities in this area.

An inspection of older people's services published last month rated the service adequate and stated that some elderly people in Reading are still facing 'unacceptable waits' for assessments.

This is a concern.

I asked RBC officers for data on how our wait times in Reading compare with other councils elsewhere.

I learned that there are 74 people waiting for an OT assessment in Reading and that these individuals are waiting on average 12-14 weeks.

This is longer than people in other areas are having to wait which is not right and action must be taken to reduce the number of long waits. 

We know that other councils are managing to see people within 28 days.

I will continue to ask searching questions of officers about this area until we see some real improvements in these waiting times for the benefit of some of Reading's most vulnerable residents.

Labour's shameful record on tackling child poverty in Reading

These startling facts speak for themselves and point to over a decade of Labour's failure to tackle poverty in Reading:

• Over a quarter of children and young people in Reading live in the 20% most deprived nationally on the Income Deprviation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)
• The wards with most children in poverty are Whitley, Abbey and Church (33-38% of all children in these areas
• Percentage of all children eligible for free school meals was around 17% in 2007 - well above the South East average of 6.8%
• In 2007 (latest figures) more people in Reading were living in the most deprived areas than in 2004

How ironic, then , that child poverty is identified as a 'priority target' within the Reading Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) and Reading's Local Area Agreement (LAA).

How long have these problems been known about, prioritised and yet in the same period the poverty gap has widened?

Locally, Labour-run Reading Borough Council's Thriving Neighbourhoods Programme was launched earlier this year to try to address inequality. It is well-intentioned but it is chronically underfunded by central government and Labour have brought it in far too late.

 And now, thanks to Gordon Brown bailing out the banks there is no money around to help those who need it most.

Nationally, Labour have failed to make any lasting impact on child poverty - as a government they are likely to leave office in 2010 having failed to meet their own child poverty targets:

"Mr Brown, when Chancellor, set targets in 1998 to halve the 3.4 million children at that time living in poverty to 1.7 million by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020"

How depressing that Labour ministers published a Child Poverty Bill half-way through their last year in office - knowing that it was highly unlikely to get through Parliament before a General Election, let alone make any impact.

So what are the health issues that children and young people are suffering in the poorest parts of Reading?

Teenage pregnancy:

 Under-18 conception rate in Reading higher than England and SE averages

Wards with high levels of deprivation also have higher teenage conception rates - high rates are seen in Katesgrove, Abey, Whitley, Norcot, Church, Minster and Battle

Oral Health

Reading has twice the decayed, filled and missing teeth (dmf-t) score compared to Wokingham.
Variation within Reading is greater than that found between other PCTs or at a national level.

Other problems we face include higher than average Infant Mortality, childhood obesity and less take up of immunisations and breastfeeding.

We know that deprivation also has a serious impact on children's ability to learn. In Reading, the gap has widened in 2009 between the highest performing children and the lowest 20%.

And when young people in the poorest parts of Reading, as I explained last week, the situation they face is even more difficult.

There is no doubt that the recession will have made the lives of the poorest children here in Reading even more difficult.

In July 2009 we know there were around 8650 children and young people live in households receiving Housing and Council Tax benefits - an increase of 12% since 2009.

This is not a record that any Labour politician either nationally or locally can be proud of.

This information is publicly available here and is the subject of a scrutiny review to be held tomorrow evening at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber in the Civic Offices.

Cllr Mark Ralph, Chair of the Education & Children's Services Scrutiny Panel and I have called for this review to focus on health inequality and more importantly to ask what RBC, Berkshire West PCT and other bodies are doing to close the gap.

Child poverty matters. It affects thousands of children and families in Reading. The failure by Labour to make any significant impact on this problem is a clear failure of political will and of leadership.

As a Party we will continue to raise these inconvenient truths both locally and nationally.I'm proud that Nick Clegg has made it clear it is one of his top priorities for government.

If this stuff bothers you I would urge you to attend the meeting on Wednesday.

The week so far: Part II

Well, it's nearly the weekend and there is still a lot going on in here in Redlands. I'm pleased to report that after a strong response from residents and councillors to plans to turn a hotel on Kendrick Road into a HMO officers are now seriously considering rejecting the planning application due to a number of issues.

I have also called in an application relating to an HMO on Alexandra Road which is a major cause for concern for local residents.

And yesterday evening at a meeting of HHCC Scrutiny Panel I won support for a stronger focus on promoting decent neighbourhoods, not just decent homes - something I have been campaigning on for several years now.

This is all about getting the Council to invest in improving the fabric of estates - long neglected by Labour over the past decade.

You only have to walk around any of the Council estates in Reading to see what I mean - whether it's environmental issues or low level anti-social behaviour these are places where Labour councillors have turned a blind eye for too long. 

If these problems are left unchecked they undermine people's confidence in the Council and the Police and they are damage to the fabric of local communities 

Earlier this year I highlighted our success in getting the Council to invest more money into improving the look and feel of estates.

After all, how people feel about their neighbourhoods is about more than just bricks and mortar.

Councillors who attended the HHCC Scrutiny Panel meeting on Wednesday supported my proposal to ask the Labour Cabinet to request that officers develop a 'decent neighbourhood standard' . 

All Members present agreed that we need to move beyond the Labour government's focus on 'Decent Homes (internal improvements) towards a situation where residents feel safe and comfortable in their local area.

This extra cash is already delivering real benefits for residents in Hexham Road - on the back of our local campaign for improvements to the estate.

We received an inspiring report from RBC's empty homes officer who is doing an amazing job bringing long empty properties back into use.

Listening to the Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Deborah Edwards and assorted Labour councillors praising the work of the EHO you would have been forgiven for thinking that empty homes had always been a priority for Labour-run RBC.

Sadly history shows this not to have been the case. Until last year Reading Borough Council had no strategy or resouces for reducing the hundreds of homes lying empty across Reading.

There remain significant numbers of empty properties in the town centre, and other parts of town too, so plenty of work still to be done.

A particular problem we face in Reading is newly-built flats lying empty - notably in the Muse and Chatham Street developments. 

However, we would be in a lot worse position with out a strategy for bringing properties back into use and dedicated officer resource.

As expected we had an interesting discussion in the meeting about the implementation of service charges. I pointed out thattiming was pretty lousy (in the middle of a recession), particularly for those tenants not in receipt of housing benefit.

Cllr Edwards said that the charges had to be introduced.

I asked why tenants should be called on to pay extra charges when money to plug the gap in the HRA could be found if the tenant tax was abolished.

Cllr Edwards stated that all tenants' rents are spent on stock in Reading.

I pointed out that quite the opposite is the case: currently millions of pounds of rent go straight back to Whitehall and are then spent on housing stock across the UK.

I asked her what she was doing to about this and she seemed a little fuzzy on the details.

I requested a report to a future Scrutiny Panel meeting assessing the impact on tenants of the new charges and to check that we are getting value for money from our lighting contract

An interesting piece of information officers revealed in the meeting was that the botched rent reduction imposed on the Council by the Labour government resulted in over 300 calls to the Council from tenants utterly confused by the move.

We learned that the u-turn also cost the Council several thousand pounds.

We spent some time on Wednesday evening discussing the impact of delays to the development of the long-awaited Battle Health & Well-being Centre at the Scrutiny meeting.

In addition, I suggested and got support for a meeting of Whitley councillors (both North and South) and the PCT to put pressure on health officials to deliver much-needed health facilities for the community in South Reading.

I have pledged to keep both these issues on the agenda for future meetings - the lack of progress is a real worry.

Anyway, that's it for now: I'm off to Conference later today, which should be interesting.