Rob Shorrock

Only just had a chance to look at what the members of SKDC have been up to since the elections. The minutes of Council on Thursday, 21st June, 2007 reveal - well not a great deal really! The whole meeting lasted an 1 hour and a quarter and the only motion that was debated was about tea. Yes, tea!

Cllr Jeff Thompson moved "that in view of the ability of all members to obtain a cup of whatever beverage they prefer whenever they like from the members' lounge and have water available in the council chamber, I believe that the suspension of business for about half an hour and the disruption caused together with the inability of visitors to avail themselves of such a privilege is totally unnecessary."

The motion was lost after a 20 minute discussion. OK, there is an issue here, but it really makes you wonder what kind of challenge the Independent opposition is ever going to give the Tories.

Good to see that Clly Ken Joynson has received the nomination of chair for the Scrutiny committee. I am sure he will do a good, rigourous and transparent job.

Last Friday, i joined Quentin Davies (Labour MP for Grantham and Stamford), Linda Neal (Tory Leader of South Kesteven District Council) Tim Robertson (Editor of Grantham Journal) at the Grantham Business Club's annual Grantham Great Debate. See it here

This was Quentin's first panel question time event since he joined the Labour Party. He was met with the predictable mix of boos and cheers from the audience of 100 or so in the Guildhall theatre. Surprisingly, he didn't get the vitriolic grilling I had been expecting, given the reaction in the letters page of the Journal. Well time moves on and shock wears off, and maybe the great Grantham public are beginning to get used to idea. Perhaps not.

The subjects for debate were virtually the same as last year: the future of the hospital and health services, traffic and road planning, resident's parking and carparking charges. For the health questions we were joined by the Chief Executive of the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust. Given that Grantham hospital A&E is no longer under direct threat the discussion was rather muted. The focus was on maternity services which at Grantham hospital are midwife lead and restricted to women of a certain age. If there are likely to be any complications then you have to travel over 20 miles to Lincoln or Nottingham. The problem is how to secure a full service that meets the needs of growing town, even although the numbers of births at this moment in time may not be enough to sustain it?

It is this numbers game that dominates the eternal consultation process into the delivery of health care services in Lincolnshire. Even although the trust has delivered an operational surplus for the first time in it history (I have not yet had a chance to look at the figures to assess whether this is just an accounting surplus) the question is to what extent this is sustainable if the purchaser of trust services (the PCT and GPs practices) doesn't have the quality and sufficiency of services to buy for patients available at Grantham hospital? The PCT is running the consultation and you can input into this here.

Linda Neal regards this as being over the heads of average people, who are, according to her not interested in how it is funded but just want good local services. This may be true, but at the same time the only way we have been able to defend Grantham Hospital from effective closure so far has been by asking the critical questions that penetrate the froth and obfuscation that health trusts are programmed to generate. This requires us to understand and grapple with the numbers. Average people can do this, and do it well.

One of the suprises of the night was Quentin making an announcement about a future Grantham east west by-pass. This has taken on Holy Grail status for many Granthonians and his announcement was keenly received by the audience. He has been in talks for over two years with the district and county council and the landowners where a prospective route will go. He reckoned that an announcement will made to go ahead before the end of this Parliament and a bypass could be in place in 5 years. If Quentin is right, then this is great news. It is something that is absolutely essential for the future development for the future development of the town.

Finally, it looks as though residents street parking permits may be possible after all. According, to Linda Neal decriminalisation of street parking has happened and the powers now rest with Lincolnshire County Council. I encouraged her and the new portfolio holder France Cartwright to set up a working group of stakeholders - including Grantham Town Centre Residents Group to look at models of how this could be developed and rolled out. Linda reckons it would take two years to introduce and I do agree. That must be a first!!!!