The local NHS consultation closes on 16 April.
To see a short and jargon-free summary and to comment online you can look HERE.
The proposals include changes to hospital services at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe. There’s been a fair bit of coverage in the local media already but if you haven’t yet what is being suggested and want to have your say, do follow the link.
I would like to inform all constituents that the Exceptional Hardship Scheme consultation regarding HS2 has been extended to 17th June 2010.
The consultation is about a voluntary purchase scheme for property owners who properties may be affected by any new high speed rail link between London and the West Midlands.
Your property does not have to be directly affected for you to take part in the consultation and I would urge as many constituents as possible to get involved.
Before replying to the consultation you should make sure to read the following:
HS2 – Covering Letter - Expectational Hardship Scheme Consultation
HS2 – Exceptional Hardship Scheme Consultation
To find out more information and how to reply to the consultation please visit http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/2010-18/
I must stress that the present consultation is about the criteria for compensation for properties affected by a possible high speed rail link. A consultation on the route is due to be held later this year.
Please find below the letter that I sent to the new Transport Secretary, The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP, on the day his appointment was announced. I will of course put up the response that I receive.
From Monday 12th April at 5.00pm Parliament was dissolved. This means there will be no MPs until after the General Election on 6th May. Until that time I will be campaigning for re-election as the Conservative Party’s Candidate for Aylesbury.
My Westminster staff are not allowed to work in the House of Commons during the election campaign though they are continuing to deal as best they can with constituency casework from their homes.
To find out more about the Conservative Party’s policies please visit http://www.conservatives.com/
Please find a link to both the Hansard and a video of my High Speed 2 debate on 23rd March 2010.
Below are the answers that I received from the Minister regarding the Parliamentary Questions that I tabled about High Speed Rail. As you can see, one of the questions has not been answered yet but it does say the Minister will get back to me shortly. Sometimes this can take a couple of days but on other occasions it can be a few weeks. I will nevertheless post the response on my website as soon as I have received it.
Below is the letter that I received from the Transport Secretary about HS2.
I note that although the Government has taken a decision on a preferred route through the A413 corridor, Lord Adonis does concede that the final decision “on either the strategic case for high speed rail or the specific routes any line may follow” will not be taken until after the consultation, which is due to be carried out in the autumn.
The decision a few years back to concentrate particular hospital services in either Stoke Mandeville or Wycombe, rather than at both sites, stirred up a huge row. In Aylesbury, we saw cardiac services go south. At Wycombe, which is the local hospital for a lot of my constituents in Stokenchurch, Naphill and other villages, maternity and children’s services were closed and concentrated at Stoke.
An awful lot hangs on having an effective ambulance service to get patients from one end of the county to a hospital at the other. Living in Risborough, I see and hear those ambulances a lot.
So what is going to happen if this rail route goes ahead and involves a viaduct across the A4010 at Stoke Mandeville? Is it really possible to do it without temporary road closures or, at the very best, traffic restrictions that are bound to add significantly to delays. I’ve been onto the Bucks Hospitals Trust today to flag this up as an issue. It’s just the latest illustration of the far-reaching impact that this scheme could have on many aspects of life here.
Apart from 4 to 5 hours work on constituency surgery meetings and subsequent letters, most of today has been spent on HS2 stuff.
I went over to Chinnor first thing to the office of the Chilterns Conservation Board. They gave me some more detailed maps of the scheme than were printed in yesterday’s White Paper and I’ve now posted these on the site.
I’m also sending copies of the White Paper and the HS2 Report asnd supporting documentation to the clerks of those parish and town councils directly affected and to Wendover, Missenden and Aylesbury Reference libraries.
There are about 1000 pages of documents so it’s going to take me everyone a bit of time to really immerse myself in the detail.
I’m afraid that the news is grim. The planned route includes:
Then there are all the issues that arise out of construction. Presumably there would have to be lorry parks , depots for building materials and arrangements for the removal of spoil. If there’s going to be bridge workson the A413, A4010 and the A418 Oxford Road what on earth is that going to do to already intolerable jams in and out of Aylesbury at peak hours?
We have to put together the strongest possible case for an alternative route that would do less environmental damage.
