January 2017

Is Bath’s world heritage status at risk from a park and ride?

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I love “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel – next time you’re looking for the courage to do something you really believe in whilst fearing the consequences give it a good listen. I know there are significant pros and cons to park and ride and many tourist hotspots are a nightmare for the private car user – what do you think about the tricky balance between countryside and progress this story raises? It tells us:

Perennially one of England’s most popular destinations, Bath is lauded for its fine Georgian architecture, natural hot springs and bucolic backdrop, which together have earned the city a place on Unesco’s world heritage list.

However, campaigners warn that Bath’s Unesco status could be at risk if a controversial park and ride development is given the go-ahead on Wednesdsay.

The city’s Conservative-led cabinet will meet this evening to discuss the proposed scheme, which has been earmarked for one of two sites in Bathampton Meadows, to the east of the city.

Protesters will march through the city from 4.30pm today in a last ditch attempt to see off the development, which critics claim will ruin the views from Solsbury Hill, a scenic spot that inspired the lyrics of Peter Gabriel.

“People are outraged about this and we’re expecting a big rally this evening,” said Christine Boyd, a leading campaigner for Bathampton Meadows Alliance. “Bathampton Meadows is part of Bath, it’s important to our world heritage city.”

Believing the development is a direct threat to Bath’s world heritage status, campaigners have sent an appeal to Unesco to intervene in the matter. The organisation has yet to respond.

Charges proposed for out-of-hours GP appointments in England

If like me your initial response to this story was “ouch” I think circumstances are quite thought provoking around it….

Patients could face paying their family doctors for out-of-hours appointments and minor procedures that fall outside the surgery’s contracted NHS work, under new plans being proposed by some GP leaders.

The scheme would see doctors use their own time to treat and charge patients and involve the setting up of a third-party company to manage the payments to GPs.

Dr Prit Buttar, leader of Oxfordshire’s local medical committee (LMC), told Pulse magazine there had been discussions with LMCs across England about rolling out the system nationally by the end of 2017.

The move is driven by anger among GPs about the amount of money put forward for general practice by the government. Buttar said it was essential to look at alternative ways of funding that allowed practices to still operate within the rules.

He added: “They will offer practice services, for example, if someone wants a minor operation but can only do this in an evening, then they can do this by charging a small fee.

“It will allow GPs to value their own time more and puts pressure on the government. The government is a monopoly customer, they can dictate how much they are willing to pay.”

COME TO OUR RURAL HEALTH SEMINAR AND HAVE YOUR SAY

Government ‘considering taking direct control of Southern Railway franchise’

The challenges of relying on this line blight many rural commuters in the South of England. I for one think there would be some real merit in a return to public ownership. The East Coast Mainline was a pleasure to use when we owned it and it made money for the tax payer. I have recently been musing on the potential of a rural national wealth fund, harnessing the capacity of public sector assets to address some of the worst impacts of the rural premium, but that’s another story….This one tells us:

The Government is considering taking direct control of the rail franchise which includes Southern Railway, it has been claimed.

Rail Business Intelligence magazine said the Department for Transport was preparing a number of options, ranging from splitting off Southern from Govia Thameslink Railway, to a complete “managed exit” to take direct control of the entire franchise until a new contract could be let.

The plan has its own codename and a potential interim managing director has been identified, said the magazine.

The news came as talks continued between Aslef and Southern to try to resolve a row over driver only trains, one of the disputes which has affected services for several months, as well as staff shortages and other problems.

The talks started a week ago, but neither side has commented on whether any progress is being made.

A small number of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Southern went on strike on Wednesday and will walk out again on Friday.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “Instead of dragging this farce out any longer the Government should now do the decent thing, pull the plug on the GTR contract, take the lines under public control and draw a line under this shambles that shames Britain’s railways.

“As part of that process they should get round the table with the union and reach a genuine and lasting negotiated settlement to the ongoing guards safety dispute.

“Transport Secretary Chris Grayling should stop pussy-footing about, get his act together and get Southern/GTR off the tracks before more damage is done.”

Yorkshire building society to close 48 branches and ditch current accounts

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People still like a human face, to count their money and be able to pop into a bank on impulse. Small rural towns benefit from the wider impact of these activities on the High Street. These closures are therefore bad news. I wonder if it might be time to think much more creatively about the application of business rates in small towns. I know many local authorities will be worried about any loss to increasingly important business rates, but what price hollowed out rural settlements?? This article tells us:

The announcement came 24 hours after HSBC said it would be shutting another 62 branches this year, on top of 55 already earmarked for closure.

The Yorkshire, Britain’s second largest building society, will quit the current account market in order to concentrate on mortgages and savings. It will also ditch the Norwich & Peterborough brand from the high street, having taken it over in 2011.

The society said the moves were designed to deliver better long-term value to its 3.3 million customers. The group aims to close 20 Yorkshire branches in May, and 28 N&P outlets from September. This would reduce the total number of branches and agencies from 308 to 260.

Chief executive Mike Regnier said: “We believe operating with Yorkshire building society as our sole high-street brand would allow us to run the business more effectively and efficiently, enabling us to deliver better products and services for our members.”

He added that customers’ increasing enthusiasm for running their finances via the internet and mobile phones was a key factor in the move. “We therefore no longer believe it is the right commercial position for us to continue to maintain these 48 branches across the N&P and Yorkshire network.”

Free range eggs may have to be renamed because of bird flu restrictions

I wondered if this might happen. I am increasingly concerned about an incremental rather than a joined up approach to this issue. Anyone taking bets on a series of last minute further extension of the restrictions until the end of the migration season? If this does happen people can justifiably ask why no sensible provision for the likely long term impact of this policy was considered… This story tells us in detail:

UK egg producers have warned that the future of the premium free range sector is at risk should the eggs lose their prized status because of the ongoing threat of bird flu.

Flocks of free range hens are being housed indoors because of the bird flu outbreak and if they are unable to go back outside by the end of February the eggs will be downgraded to “barn produced”, the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) has said.

In December the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) ordered that all free range hens – providing eggs or meat – be housed to protect against the threat of the H5N8 influenza virus. At that time there were no cases in the UK but there were numerous reports of cases in other European countries. The so-called housing order was for 30 days.

Since then, cases of H5N8 have been found in the UK – on two turkey farms in Lincolnshire and in backyard flocks in Wales and North Yorkshire – as well as in a number of wild birds around the country. The chief veterinary officer, Nigel Gibbens, subsequently extended the housing order until the end of February. Bird flu has since been found in a flock of farmed pheasants in Lancashire.

Concern is now growing among free range producers because the extension will take the housing order to the end of the 12-week period – imposed by the EU – beyond which free range birds will lose their status unless they are allowed outdoors. Mark Williams, the chief executive of the BEIC, is calling for the 12-week cut-off to be extended.

Cats and dogs are equally intelligent – new research

Without taking sides I’m a dog lover…..This article tells us:

It is a question that for centuries dog lovers and cat lovers have fought over like, well, cats and dogs: which animal is more intelligent?

Now scientists in Japan appear finally to have settled the matter by proving cats are just as good as their canine counterparts at various memory tests, suggesting they could be equally clever.

It is already known that dogs can recollect specific non-immediate events, an ability known as episodic memory.

But a study of  49 domestic cats showed the animals were also able to remember which bowl they had already eaten out of and which remained untouched, after a 15-minute interval

Making the right connection helps to combat loneliness

Rural isolation particularly for the elderly is a real challenge. This article puts some really useful meat on the bones of the issue. We have been involved for some time in a social value project which helps to quantify these sort of issues at a very local level. If you would like to know more drop me a line. In the meantime this article tells us:

A study published today finds that disconnected communities could be costing the UK economy £32bn every year. The research, commissioned by the Eden Project’s neighbourhood initiative, The Big Lunch, which receives £1m-£2m a year from the Big Lottery Fund, reveals the annual cost to public services of social isolation and disconnected communities, including demand on health services and policing.

The study found that far from just being a symptom of old age, loneliness and social isolation affected a broad range of people: “[There are] key triggers that can disrupt lives and create a situation in which loneliness becomes the norm,” the report says. “[These] include becoming a new mum at a young age, facing empty nest syndrome or retirement, experiencing long-term health issues or mobility limitations, dealing with bereavement or going through a family breakdown, such as divorce or separation.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, Britain is the loneliness capital of Europe. We’re less likely to know our neighbours than residents anywhere else in the EU, and a high proportion of the population have no one to rely on in a crisis. It’s more than simply feeling lonely – research shows that isolation can have huge knock-on effects on both mental and physical health, which is one of the reasons why social isolation is costing the UK so much money.

According to the research, which was carried out by the consultancy the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), disconnected communities are also linked to a loss of productivity, with a net cost to the economy of about £12bn every year, based on previous research that found happiness could be associated with a 12% rise in productivity.

Online justice: why courts should explore emerging digital possibilities

This fascinating article tells us:

People in all societies have disputes. In advanced legal systems the dominant approach to resolving them has been to instruct lawyers and appear before courts. But with the internet, advanced hardware and cutting-edge software coming on-stream, the days of fetching up in front of a judge with bulging case-files are beginning to change – though rather faster in some parts of the world than others.

Professor Richard Susskind, IT adviser to the UK lord chief justice, argues that there are four compelling reasons why courts should explore the emerging digital possibilities. “The system is costly for users; it’s usually too time consuming and disputes take a long time to resolve; it’s largely unintelligible; and it also seems out of step in the internet society,” he says. “Citizens have a growing expectation that services will be delivered digitally.”

The most visible problem – piles of paperwork that are hard to reference and often even harder for the parties to access – has now been solved in the higher criminal courts in England and Wales, which completed the transition to fully digitised evidence files in April 2016. Civil courts in England and Wales, however, have not yet made that leap, and though a government consultation is being held (pdf) on an fundamental rethink of how civil justice is delivered, many other countries are far further ahead with their e-justice revolution.

I suggest you reflect on it alongside Jessica’s recent “rural words” piece on the emerging justice desert in rural areas – here

Why the NHS is performing miracles

Hoorah for this article which tells us:

In recent weeks, bed occupancy rates have hit 95%. Now that may not sound like the definition of being full, but it is well above the 85% recommended threshold for a hospital to work effectively.

Above this level hospitals start to unravel, patients end up in the wrong places, infection rates start to rise and a backlog of patients builds up in corridors, in A&E and outside in ambulances dropping patients off.

Yes, some of this has started happening, but in many respects you would have expected performance to deteriorate even more than it has.

During the first week of the year – the most difficult so far this winter – more than three-quarters of patients arriving in A&E were still seen in four hours.

Yes the rate of-called “trolley waits” – where patients admitted as an emergency are left waiting more than four hours for a bed – doubled to one in five patients. But the number of “dire” 12-hour waits only amounted to 0.5%.

A week later bed occupancy rates had risen slightly – and guess what happened? Performance actually improved on many measures.

Ask anybody working in the health service and they will say this is down to the dedication and hard work of hospital staff.

Lord Kerslake, chairman of King’s College Hospital in London and a former senior civil servant, has described the efforts of staff at his hospital as “extraordinary”, while the BBC coverage over the past week or so has been full of doctors, nurses and managers recounting how everyone is pulling together.

I think this huge challenge puts all sorts of innovative opportunities our way in rural settings. This is why we have organized our rural conference for 28 February 2017. To learn more about the art of the “rural possible” in terms of health book here:

First direct train service from China to the UK arrives in London

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I couldn’t resist this story because it runs like a positive thread of globalization through recent news. It shows how connectivity can be really positive and speaks in my mind to the potential offered to rural businesses by fast and reliable access to Chinese markets. It tells us:

The first ever direct freight train service from China to the UK has arrived in London after an epic 17-day journey.

The East Wind service departed Yiwu City in China’s Zhejiang Province on 3 January and crossed ten countries on its 7,456-mile trip, before pulling into Barking rail terminal in East London on Wednesday afternoon.

It crossed China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before finally reaching Britain.

The train, which is operated by Yiwu Timex Industrial Investments, arrived carrying 34 containers packed with £4 million worth of clothes and other goods and was greeted by a group of officials and local residents.

The Chinese and British governments hope the new route will increase trade between the two countries. Transporting goods by rail is cheaper than air freight and quicker than by boat. The service will run once a week for several months in order to gauge demand. If successful the rail link could be made permanent.

The link reopens the old Silk Road route that was previously used to transport goods between Europe and Asia.

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