Blog

Tuesday 13th June 2017

Openreach re-locating Communications Cabinet

Some excellent news for those who had complained to me over the sighting of the Openreach

Communications Cabinet at the junction of Manstone Mead and Sidford Road A375 and which was obstructing vision of vehicles travelling towards Sidmouth from Sidford. Having taken this issue up last November 2016 with our Highways and Development Management teams at County Hall and following several internal meetings with our enforcement section Openreach have now agreed to relocate the box and will be setting it back into the grass bank.

Thursday 2nd March

Sidmouth Community Hospital retains it's 24 Inpatient Beds

Following the recent 'Your Future Care' consultation on the future of inpatient beds and care the CCG Board met today at Exeter Racecourse where they approved that inpatient beds would be located at Tiverton 32, Sidmouth 24 and Exmouth 16 ..... This was option B in the consultation document.

During the consultation process I had spoken out at various meetings of misinformation contained in the consultation document of access and parking difficulties at Sidmouth Community Hospital and had researched and provided written information for the CCG that was fed into the sieve process...I am therefore delighted with the news that 24 beds will be here at Sidmouth. This is excellent news for everyone involved with Sidmouth Community Hospital and I’m delighted for the Comforts Fund led by Graham Vincent who have put their hearts and souls into the campaign for beds to remain here at Sidmouth, My concerns raised over inaccuracies on access have been addressed by the CCG and I’m pleased that they listened. The CCG also looked at the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment which is collected by Devon County Council that showed that in terms of inequalities, Sidmouth has an larger and older population than Seaton and this also tipped the balance in our direction.

19 towns and villages are covered by multiple bus routes to and from Sidmouth and all stop in All Saints Road - approx 60 meters from the hospital. As for Car Parking there are 51 spaces at the hospital and during the evening the Health Centre and Library Car Park is available and of course there is various limited waiting in the near vicinity of the hospital.

Monday 6th February 2017

Beware of Parking Scam

Anyone receiving an email purporting to be from a company called CPS Enforcement Northern Ltd should ignore it as it is an hoax and opening the email links could cause untold damage to your computer...... The company have posted the following info on their website:-

CPS Enforcement (Northern) Ltd

Parking Systems and Solutions

At CPS Enforcement (Northern) Ltd, we are committed to helping land owners, businesses and residents free their parking spaces for their allocated use.

We combine practical expertise with robust systems to significantly reduce the nuisance of unauthorised parking. Speak to one of our expert staff today, to find out how we can help you.

Important: Email Spam - appologies if in the past few days you have received parking notices by email. Please disregard these and DO NOT respond or click on any links as these can infect your device. Please note any notices from us are always sent via post.

Friday 3rd February 2017

Devon County Council to increase its Adult Social Care budget by £19m

The budget that supports disability services is proposed to increase by over £11m, the budget that supports older people is set to increase by £2.5m this reflects the anticipated demand for the coming year. The emphasis of the County Council is to promote independence so that people can continue to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. When people have an assessed eligible care need Devon will support them and has not cut the funds that do this.

Therefore people should not be frightened by the stories that they may see circulated by people who misrepresent the local services that continue to be available. The quality of care is also increasing, over 90% of the businesses providing care at home are rated as outstanding or good by the regulator CQC, the ratings of local providers can be seen on the CQC web site. The joint contracts that Devon CC and the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have awarded are set at prices which make sure carers are paid for all the hours they work, including travelling time, at or above the national living wage.

On reading the risk register, it should be read in conjunction with the mitigation measures that would be used if any of the risks listed actually came about. All council documents like the budget are required to consider what possible risks need to be thought about. The additional column explains how the risk has been mitigated for. In other words the Council has already planned how it will deal with things that may arise.

As for the provision of social care and supply of care in the area I can confirm that there are places for people either for care at home or in a residential home. As a demand led service availability is changing all the time but because there is capacity there have been and still are no one from the Sidmouth area who is waiting in an acute hospital for a home care service.