YOUR MP WRITES (From Worcester News)

YOUR MP WRITES

8:20am Thursday 6th September 2007

• Print
• Email

AS the rather dismal summer gives way to that annual gloomy back-to-school feeling for so many of us, I find I’m suffering from a case of political seasonal affective disorder myself.
It just depresses me to think of all the ways in which Worcestershire is being seriously neglected.
Here are three.
First, the gloom over our county’s post offices carries on.
The Government has praised the ridiculous decision to close post offices such as Worcester’s Foregate Street office and move it to the first floor of WHSmiths.
A lot of sub post offices are lined up for closure too – but we won’t know exactly how many until this time next year after a consultation process that will cunningly be held during the summer holidays, when local councils are not sitting, and when most of those who would normally get involved are away on holiday.
The second issue that makes me both depressed and angry is the raw deal Worcestershire’s children get when it comes to school funding.
According to the latest figures Worcestershire now receives £420 per child per year less than the national average. The difference in funding for our schools against the national average has grown by 180 per cent in the past eight years. This is nothing more than scandalous.
The third is the creeping regionalism being imposed by this government and which is slowly but surely taking power away from Worcestershire.
We already have the unelected regional development agency, a regional planning policy and a regional ambulance service, and now are facing the closure of our ambulance call-centre at Bransford, with plans to relocate it to Brierly Hill in Dudley.
This is a monumentally bad idea.
Local knowledge is incredibly important to ensure swift responses to emergency calls.
There is evidence that Brierly Hill is already overstretched, and of the two centres it was this one which was put out of action in the recent floods.
If the closure goes ahead then patients in both Herefordshire and Worcestershire will receive a worse service. We may come near the bottom of lists alphabetically, but there is no reason why we should come so low down on the list of Government priorities.