Category: Peterborough

Care Home Closure – Avoiding Fatal Outcomes

08:08 Friday 13th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: One story has dominated the Peterborough Breakfast Show this week, and the news agenda right across the city. And the team here behind the Show have really brought this to the fore this week. It’s the decision by the Council to consult on whether to close two of its care homes, which has caused a massive reaction from you, from staff, from residents, and everybody involved really. Even the Cabinet member on Peterborough City Council had his say on the Show. The City Council says Welland and Greenwood House are not fit for purpose so should be closed. But the families of the residents and their carers are worried about the impact of moving elderly people, who could be deteriorating later in life. Yesterday, Terry Rich, the Director of Adult Social Care at the Council, the man who came up with the report, the man behind the proposals, says elderly people are not in danger. (TAPE)
TERRY RICH: many years ago there were stories of poorly managed closures, where there was evidence that that was the case. There has been a huge amount of work around how is the best way to manage these very sensitive change processes. And I’ve known of many instances where people have thrived when they’ve moved on. .. People suffering from dementia often need good quality environment. They need space where they can wander freely in safety. They need a design of buildings which minimises the anxiety. Now staff in our homes are doing the very best that they can in the circumstances. But in my professional view, there is a much better environment that could be provided for people with dementia. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well just over an hour ago, we heard from Yvonne Hossack, who’s a solicitor who’s represented vulnerable people and elderly people for the last fifteen years. She researched the effects of moving patients from care homes, and started by telling us what she discovered and experienced first hand. (TAPE)
YVONNE HOSSACK: In the first care home closure case I did, which was in 1997, people were a lot less frail than they are nowadays. 37% of them died in the year following the closure. That’s 15 out of 41. And I compared that to the usual death rate in homes in Northamponshire over a four year period, which was just over 18%. So twice as many died. .. More recently in 2009 and 2010, I did outcome mortality data from three care home closures, Wolverhampton, Hull and Southampton, and 26 out of 54 of the residents died within months of hearing bad news or months of moving. Continue reading “Care Home Closure – Avoiding Fatal Outcomes”

Council Interim Director and Care Home Closure Expert

08:14 Thursday 12th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Let’s speak to Terry Rich, who’s Director of Adult Social Care at Peterborough City Council. Remind us just why the Council is consulting on whether these care homes should close. Continue reading “Council Interim Director and Care Home Closure Expert”

Care Home Closure – Wayne Fitzgerald

Audio Part One
Audio Part Two

08:12 Wednesday 11th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: When you went round and had a look at these rooms, what did you find?
WAYNE FITZGERALD: Well you know very well that I haven’t visited either home as yet. It’s planned that we will visit, both the Director and I, before any decision is made.
PAUL STAINTON: So you’ve not been round the homes, yet you’re making these massive decisions that affect the most vulnerable in society. Continue reading “Care Home Closure – Wayne Fitzgerald”

Hard Fi Festival Fiasco – Massive Inquiry Planned

08:18 Monday 9th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Many of you contacted us about the Peterborough Festival, the Finale of which fell victim to the bad weather this weekend. Thousands of you expecting to see Hard Fi playing in Central Park. But disappointment after torrential downpours, when Vivacity decided to put a stop to the festivities. A small scale street theatre performance was held yesterday on Bridge Street. It was an unfortunate way to end what would have been a great event. Wonderful stuff booked in. And it looked like it was only going to get better on Saturday. Criticism of how Council officials communicated with each other and the public, the way Vivacity and Enterprise perhaps worked together with the Council in the run up to the Festival. We saw a bit of confusion all round, and we spoke to Cllr Yvonne Lowndes earlier, who said the show should have gone on, should have carried on.
YVONNE LOWNDES: They could have cordoned off the areas with a lot of the mud, and everything could have gone ahead. In hindsight, yesterday it was quite dry, and we could have had continued the Festival. And there are lots and lots of disappointed people. And I was talking to them. Some people yesterday came all the way from Lincoln, thinking they were going to see the orchestra last night. And of course they were very disappointed.
PAUL STAINTON: Well Deputy Leader of the Peterborough City Council Matthew Lee is here now. Morning Matthew.
MATTHEW LEE: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Before I get into the weekend, can I take you back to the planning of this, last week, and the fact that .. this is how I read it last week .. there was an application to increase the capacity of Central Park to 15,000 at the last minute, which seemed like some sort of panic act by Enterprise. You, according to Cllr John Peach, knew nothing about this. And then at the last minute you slapped it down and said 5,000 would be enough. Have I read it right? Continue reading “Hard Fi Festival Fiasco – Massive Inquiry Planned”

Hard Fi Gig a Council PR Disaster

07:14 Friday 6th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Mike’s been on this morning on text. He says “Hello Paul. I think your show has been blacklisted by the Council. These days, when you want to ask critical questions, they refuse to come on to your show. It all seemed to start after you started asking relevant questions about  Children’s Services in the city.” says Mike. We are still searching for answers over this Hard-Fi gig Ed, and I wonder whether you’ve got an opinion on it. Because to apply for a licence to raise the capacity to 15,000 suggests, well a: it was last minute, so there was panic. It suggests that Enterprise and Vivacity thought, Oh, we might have more than 5,000 people. Now we are being told, no, no, it’s all right. There’ll only be 5,000. But we don’t know if people are going to be allowed in if you’re 5,002 or 5,003. And nobody from this big pow-wow yesterday has come on this show to answer questions for the public of Peterborough this morning.
ED MURPHY COUNCILLOR: Well let’s get the risk assessment published. There will have been work done on that, and it is a document that everybody should be entitled to see. They do plan for these things. I don’t know how well they plan in Peterborough. I find it astonishing that the local authority, over a number of months now, have not been responding to the media in Peterborough, and particularly your show, which is THE media in Peterborough.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Should we stop asking critical questions? Is that the problem, do you think Ed?
ED MURPHY COUNCILLOR: No. I think you need to continue asking critical questions. I don’t know whether they haven’t got the capacity. They pay people as special advisers to be communications advisers to the Cabinet. I don’t know what it is. I understand there have been people pushed out of employment in the Council. I think the spokespeople need to realise that’s what they are. That’s what the public expects from them. And don’t blame the officers. If you’re shy, don’t take on the role. Get some training. But just keep talking. The facts are the facts. And whatever you try and do, most of them will eventually come out. Tell the truth. If you made mistakes, put your hands up and learn from your mistakes.
PAUL STAINTON: And I have to say, whether it’s good news or bad Ed Murphy, you do come on the show. So thank you very much for that. Sometimes you get a kicking, and sometimes you don’t. But he always comes on. But there are questions that we need answering, I think, before Hard Fi come tomorrow. Hopefully it will all go off fine. But how to turn a good news story into a bad news story. There’s an absolute object lesson in how to do it between Enterprise, Vivacity and Peterborough City Council.

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Care Homes Closure Decision With One Week’s Warning

08:08 Monday 2nd July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Undoubtedly one topic has got you very very hot under the collar this morning. It’s about Peterborough City Council considering closing its two care homes, Greenwood and Welland House. If it happened, the 32 permanent residents, as well as those needing respite care, would be transferred to one of the city’s private care homes. Joining me now is Wayne Fitzgerald. He’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care at Peterborough City Council. Can you tell us why the Council has decided to consult on these two care homes. Continue reading “Care Homes Closure Decision With One Week’s Warning”

A Tradition of Public Service

08:20 Thursday 28th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOREEN MURRAY FORMER COUNCILLOR: I was a councillor for almost twelve months before I was told I should claim expenses. And I said I’m not in here to claim expenses, I’m in here to make things better for people around me. Because my son was born partially sighted, and I saw the way things weren’t being done for them. So many things within the community needed doing. And I was approached three times by the Conservatives to run for them. And then I looked around, and my son said to me Mum, you’re always saying you want to help people out. This is your opportunity. So that’s why I became a councillor. I never, ever drew expenses. The only expenses I drew was for my telephone bill, because it never stopped. And I am absolutely disgusted. Because where everything went downhill with the Council is when councillors started to get a wage. They joined the Council not to make things better. They joined it because it’s a gravy train. And Charlie (Swift) saying that it was a traditional thing to get sandwiches. That’s rubbish. I never ever. The only time you got a cup of tea was when the Mayor would invite us into the Parlour. And that was it. I get very upset about it all. You’ve got some good people within, but you’ve also got an adminstration that really needs kicking out. And everything starts at the top. It starts with the Head of the Council. And things need changing, and I think councillors should start giving up the wage that they’re getting, and give it to charity. Because it’s needed more for charitable causes. Charlie (Swift) is a good guy. I like Charlie. He’s worked hard for his community, and that’s why he’s still a councillor. I think it’s immoral. I get very upset when I know how much money that they’re getting, the councillors, and they’re getting advisors who are earning salaries, to advise them. Why should they need people to advise them? Go out in the community. Knock on doors. Find out is there anything you want. That’s what Jack Rigby and I used to do. Every Saturday morning we did a walkabout in Orton Longueville. Everybody knew us. We asked, is there any problems? What’s needed? You don’t need advisers. The public are your advisers. Listen to them.

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Fiona Radic Green Party on Peterborough Council’s Incinerator Plans

07:10 Wednesday 27th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

FIONA RADIC: Landfill tax is a problem. However, that doesn’t take into account that we still have to dispose of what’s left, because there’s a residue left after incineration. There are two residues. One is bottom ash, which is what comes out of the bottom of the incinerator process. That goes to landfill. There is some notion that it can be used in roads, but apparently that’s not actually ever been done, outside the boundaries of landfill sites. The other much nastier is fly ash, which comes from inside the stack. And we don’t know what would be done with that, although we understand there are various chemical processes. It can be combined with cement working, and so on. But basically we don’t know what the plans are for those. And we also can’t quantify how much. So when they say it eliminates landfill, that can’t possibly be true, because we need to work out what’s left after incineration.
Friends of the Earth has very pessimistic forecasts for the amount of energy this particular plant, or a plant of this type, can actually produce. But much more importantly, in the plans there is no energy delivery infrastructure. Now in Scandinavia, where they do have a record of moving warm or hot water into people’s homes, or facilities like swimming pools, there’s a very very very very high tech grid, which has to be put in. And there’s no indication that the Council has got that grid, or even thought about it at the moment.

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