Oi! Boundary Commission, “No!”

Oi! Boundary Commission, “No!”

I have today made a submission to the Boundary Commission to rename the Constituency as “Deptford” and not “Lewisham North and Deptford”. I said, “Deptford has a proud maritime history to be remembered by the Convoy’s Wharf heritage projects. The recent and planned house building, moves the population centre of gravity towards Deptford as does the proposed loss of Hither Green and Crofton Park. Transport links within the constituency are predominately East/West to the West End, City and Kent. No one uses the name Lewisham North to describe the area, or any area.” I suggested that my second choice would be Deptford and Brockley. …

Closing the Waldron

At the Momentum meeting last night, it was pointed out the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group are consulting on closing the Waldron Centre, the Deptford/New Cross located NHS medical walk-in centre. It would seem that they propose that walk-ins are dealt with at Lewisham Hospital A&E or at local GP surgeries; it’s just as well we managed to keep the hospital open really, although this could be seen as the accountant’s revenge.

The consultation document justifying the proposal, and the online survey are at this page.

http://www.lewishamccg.nhs.uk/get-involved/Pages/Have-your-say-Walk-in-Centre,-New-Cross.aspx

The consultation document characterises the centre’s users by nature of complaint, reason for use of the walk-in centre, and likely alternatives to be pursued. (A not so popular alternative is to look for another walk-in centre; there are none in South London.)

It documents the fact that 43% of its visitors do not have Lewisham GPs and that 23% have no GPs at all. It puts these statistics in the context of cost. Lewisham CCG do not get a capitation fee for these visitors and despite the service orientated arguments, it is likely to the real motivation.

It argues that walk-in centres are not good for treatments, in particular for mental health treatment and then show that the top six complaints are highly physical with the top one being wound care.

No figures are presented about waiting time for GP appointments.

This is a cut in service, you might like to read the document and complete the survey.

A short URL has been created at http://bit.ly/WaldronFuture …

And out of the traps

And out of the traps

Labour has selected Vicky Foxcroft, the sitting MP to stand as Labour’s Candidate for MP in Lewisham Deptford. I am pleased to support her and already have my “Vote Labour” poster up. Anyone who thinks that this election is about anything other than Brexit is fooling themselves. She was one of the rebels who broke the whip to oppose the bill authorising the UK’s Article 50 notice, an action I supported. Corbyn has a problem in presenting Labour’s policy as he needs/wants to say one thing about winning and being in Government, and another should we lose. …

learnings of deptford, on the doorstep

New Cross in the a.m., 7:00 a.m.

I was out on the doorstep tonight, campaigning for Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s candidate for MP in Deptford. I met a number of interesting people and these are my notes, thanks to those who spoke to me about tactical voting, the middle east, racism, welfare and Labour’s representation of its core suport, the working class. …

Labour Doorstep

I spent the afternoon on the doorstep as part of the team launching Deptford Labour Pat’s general election campaign. I have worked this area before; I can never read this part of the constituency, socially it should be Labour but its often quiet and much of my experience from previous campaigns is in different classes of area.  …

Mega City

Mega City

The Convoy’s Wharf planning decision was taken earlier this week.  For a balenced informed view, I recommend looking at Crosswatfields blog, Mayor of London gives Convoys Wharf the go ahead, which looks at the growing consensus that schemes such as these are not what London nor its local communities need. I shared my submission on this blog last week, and found Crosswatfields earlier blog article, Only 6 days left to object to the plans for Convoys Wharf an excellent pointer and reminder. If you want some more, I created a story at Storify to capture the twittersphere during the public hearing and this now includes a link to a press release from the Mayor of London which documents the approval of the planning application; it also instructs the developer to review the plans for Sayes Court Gardens and the Build the Lenox project.  …

Saving Deptford’s History

Saving Deptford’s History

New Cross Labour Party have published Joan Ruddock’s submission on Convoys Wharf planning application for consideration by the Mayor of London on their web site. Joan argues for better planning and support for the Sayes Garden project and the project to rebuild the Lenox, the flagship of the Restoration Navy. She also states that the current provision for social housing is not adequate, although I am given to understand that the final determination of the housing mix is to be taken later in the process.  …

Don’t Dump on Deptford’s Heart

Don’t Dump on Deptford’s Heart

I went down to the Deptford Lounge to support comrades and soon to be neighbours in opposing turning Deptford High Street and Church Street into a building site for the next five years. Thames Water have asked for permission to use the green at St. Paul’s as their engineering support site for their plans to build the super-sewer. The national planning inspectorate had come to Deptford to take evidence. The first speaker was the local MP, Joan Ruddock and followed by Joe Dromey and Brenda Dacres who spoke on behalf of the local campaign group “Don’t Dump on Deptford’s Heart”.  …