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STORIES from CHIPPING NORTON NEWS
THE PARKER KNOLL CLOSURE
LOCAL HEADLINES
A third of primary schools in Oxford are
missing out on extra income because they do not hire out their premises to
community groups. Oxfordshire County Council's learning and culture
committee has agreed to help schools develop their sites as community
venues. A fifth of all schools surveyed across Oxfordshire are not hired
outside school hours, while 40 per cent claimed they could increase their
community bookings. Only five per cent of schools which do not hire out
their premises blame this on a lack of facilities. The schools' biggest
concern is the lack of staff to support and administer the hiring of
school premises. The Government set aside cash last year to hire a county
marketing and lettings manager in 2005/6. It has a vision of schools
becoming multi-purpose sites, including everything from doctors' surgeries
and ambulance bases to social services centres. In March, schools
standards minister David Miliband questioned the future of up to 41
undersubscribed schools in the county. He urged local authorities to make
better use of school facilities. County councillor Andrew Brown, who led
the review into school premises use, said the proposals offered low-cost
solutions. Suggestions include the creation of partnerships between
schools so staff can provide a range of facilities for interested groups.
Mr Brown said: "Everybody can win out of this. Encouraging better use of
publicly-owned facilities will put schools at the heart of communities.
"Where communities value local schools, children are more engaged with the
education process." Robert Evans, the member for Chipping Norton, warned
that schools should provide a complementary service to existing community
facilities to avoid being in competition with village halls.
Doctors across Oxfordshire have met Government targets
for giving pensioners flu vaccinations. Surgeries across the county backed
a drive to make sure elderly patients and those with heart or lung
conditions received a jab. All five primary care trusts covering the
county achieved the national target of a 70 per cent uptake.
Our own area -
Cherwell Valley PCT -- which had failed to meet the target
for the past two years -- achieved a 72.8 per cent uptake. The results in
the north of the county have been partly attributed to a concerted
'Keeping Well in Winter' campaign. It included an open day in Banbury Town
Hall before Christmas, when more than 100 pensioners popped in for a jab
and free cup of tea or coffee. Marie McLoughlin, public health manager for
the North East and Cherwell Valley PCTs, said the event, which was also
attended by other agencies such as emergency services and Age Concern,
would be repeated this winter. She said: "Once you get over 65 your
immunity is not as good as it was, and if they pick up flu they could end
up in hospital for one, two or three weeks."
A £529,000 cash boost to improve access
to NHS dentists in Oxfordshire has been announced by the Government. New
figures show less than a third of county adults are registered for cheap
dental care, and the Department of Health is ploughing the money into
Oxfordshire, in April, to provide new surgeries and equipment, and recruit
more salaried dentists. Oxfordshire dental consultant David Thomas said
the DoH money would be a "fantastic help", allowing health managers across
Oxfordshire to improve NHS access, quality and choice. Only 11 out of 113
dental surgeries in Oxfordshire are currently inviting patients to
register for NHS treatment, and according to public health statistics,
only 32 per cent of county adults have access to the cheaper care. The
funding has been welcomed by county councillor Brian Hodgson, who has
called for Oxfordshire County Council to investigate the NHS dentist
shortages. He said: "It's extremely good news, and the start of what I
hope will be the reversal of the terrible trend in NHS dentistry."
An international horse-riding
championship - to be held in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Woodstock--
has received £275,000 in Lottery funding. The award, from UK Sport,
represents about 25 per cent of the budget for the European Eventing
Championships horse trials, which will take place from September 8-11 next
year. The cash will help pay for a temporary bridge for eventers and more
seating for spectators.
The county's jobless total has fallen
slightly in line with national trends, but Oxford continues to harbour a
higher pocket of unemployment in males. In January, 4,332 people in the
county were claiming jobseekers' allowance, compared with 4,349 in
December. The county's unemployment rate remains unchanged at 1.1 per cent
-- one of the lowest in Britain, according to National Statistics.
However, in Oxford 1,282 men are claiming benefit -- 2.6 per cent of the
working population -- compared with 360 women. The figures in December
were 1,289 and 389. Cherwell, which was once an unemployment blackspot,
was the only area to see a rise, with claimant numbers up from 858 to 876.
There were falls in South Oxfordshire (730), Vale of White Horse (620) and
West Oxfordshire (464).
A district councillor is calling for an end to free car parking in
West Oxfordshire to raise money. The Government
is threatening West Oxfordshire District Council with capping because of
its planned 30 per cent rise in council tax this year. The council has
made savings of £900,000 from its budget and is looking at further cuts.
Former chairman Colin James proposes bringing in money through charging at
council car parks. Parking is free at the
moment in all the council's car parks. Mr James said: "There are very few
districts in the country that still have free car parking. It is costing
us £400,000 a year to deliver this service so we may be seen as
subsidising motorists."
Richard
Shaw, Oxfordshire County Council's chief executive, could be in line for a
15 per pay increase to take his salary to £150,000 a year. The council's
democracy and organisation committee is considering pay levels for senior
staff, including the chief executive, five strategic directors and 30
heads of service. John Power, Labour county councillor for Oxford West,
claims he has discovered proposals which would give Mr Shaw an estimated
salary of £3,000 a week. Mr Power claimed the council leader Keith
Mitchell recommended that an increase from £130,000 a year to £150,000
should go ahead -- but Mr Mitchell said no decision had been made. Mr
Power said: "If this is true, it raises some disturbing questions. Not
least the obvious knock-on effect on the whole range of new directorships
he (Mr Shaw) has created, and the consequent impact on staff morale. "They
will see it as the fat cat syndrome. In short, they are tied to three to
four per cent increases while their masters take the cream."
House prices in Oxfordshire fell in
December, putting the county bottom of a nationwide league table. The
Hometrack Index shows prices slipped by 0.3 per cent, making it the worst
performing area in the country along with Berkshire. But experts and local
agents claim home owners should not be alarmed by the statistics as the
long-term forecast for the year indicates positive growth with prices
rising locally by up to 10 per cent. Hometrack managing director Patrick
Currie said: "There was a slowdown in December but it was probably
seasonal and not too surprising."
New figures out today show that schools
in Oxfordshire are lagging behind the rest of the country in GCSE results.
The county's schools failed to meet targets set by Oxfordshire LEA. Tony
Crabbe, the county council's executive member for schools, said poor
teaching was to blame. In contrast, the National Union of Teachers claimed
low salaries and underfunding were making it harder than ever to recruit
and retain staff. The Government's figures show that 51.3 per cent of
children in Oxfordshire achieved the benchmark five GCSEs at grade C or
better against a national average of 52.9 per cent. The average points
score achieved by pupils -- 34.7 -- was below the national average of
34.8. Many pupils had also failed to reach the standard at GCSEs predicted
when they were 14. Tony Crabbe said: "Oxfordshire has made no improvement
at all in the last year and that's a concern to me because in 1995 we were
well above the national average. It's not because of underfunding because
we've shown that Oxfordshire schools are funded as well as our statistical
neighbours who all do better than us at GCSE. "Schools have accepted that
they are not performing as well as they should do." Mark Forder,
Oxfordshire branch secretary of the NUT, said underfunding and the high
cost of living in Oxfordshire reduced the quantity and quality of staff.
He said: "Schools don't have enough staff because they had to lay them off
last year and this year's budget didn't address that. Our secondary
schools are in a desperate state physically and are overcrowded, and, as
long as we don't address that, results won't improve."
Owners of clapped-out cars in west
Oxfordshire could be paying more for the council to dispose of them.
The fee may be increased to £50 as district councillors prepare for
next year's budget and look at ways of making savings and increasing
income. The current £23.50 fee is lower than Oxford, where £47 is charged.
In the past two years, however, the number of abandoned vehicles has only
slightly decreased from 346 in 2001-2 to 336 in 2002-3. Further measures
are now being considered to tighten the screw, including direct links to
the Drivers' Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to speed up the process of
tracking down last registered owners. David Harvey, chairman of the
council's environment scrutiny committee, said: "There has been a fall in
the scrap metal value of cars which has an effect on the costs of the
collection service. "At the same time we need to make sure people do not
deliberately dump them in our district."
by
Julian Dancer
A 'Dad's Army' of detectives is helping
to reduce crime in north Oxfordshire. Elderly residents at Norton Green
Court, The Green, Chipping Norton, have linked with the charity
Crimestoppers to make their sheltered housing complex more secure. The
initiative is designed to reduce residents' fear of crime as well as
prevent burglaries and other offences.
Crimestoppers has teamed up with house
builder McCarthy and Stone which specialises in homes for the elderly. The
company, which built Norton Green Court, is responsible for about
two-thirds of Britain's private sheltered homes and is looking to increase
security at its developments. As part of the deal, Crimestoppers will
advise residents how to improve their personal safety when they are
outside their homes. Keith Lovelock, McCarthy and Stone's chairman, said:
"Our partnership with Crimestoppers is a natural one given the emphasis we
place on security. It will provide a highly visible means of deterring
crime and show how seriously we take the safety of our residents." He
said: "We will display the Crimestoppers logo at the main entrance of
Norton Green Court and around the outside of the building as a reminder
for people to be vigilant." Jane Reay, deputy director of operations for
Crimestoppers, said: "Our success hinges on members of the community who
pass on information, anonymously, about criminals and criminal activity."
A furious
row has broken out over plans to cut the hours of an accident clinic at
Witney to help Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital meet Government targets.
The Witney Minor Injuries Unit is to shut down at 6pm each evening,
instead of 11pm, so that nursing staff can be moved to the Oxford
hospital's beleaguered Accident and Emergency department. One senior
member of staff is understood to have resigned over the decision.
Witney MP David Cameron has called the
move "quite wrong" and West Oxfordshire district councillors are pledging
to fight the cut. Cabinet leader Barry Norton said: "This is crazy. The
unit provides health care for local people - 9,000 patients last year -
with just a nurse, nursing assistant and radiographer. "People will now
have to travel to Oxford if they need care in the evenings." The issue has
been listed an emergency item on the council's cabinet agenda for December
17.
Labour group leader Ted Cooper
said: "What is the benefit? You are just shifting someone who is injured
in Witney to Oxford. It's the same workload. "It is absolutely ridiculous.
The health authority is supposed to be working in partnership with local
authorities and primary care trusts. This is no sort of partnership." The
Minor Injuries Unit, based at the town's community hospital, was set up in
1999 as a satellite service of the JR's A&E department. Its purpose was to
provide local treatment for minor injuries and burns, plus X-ray
facilities, to take the strain off the JR and save people long trips and
long waits.
by
Nigel Hanson
A retired north Oxfordshire GP
says he is ashamed of the service provided by today's GPs. Dr Bruce
Parker, who worked at The Whitehouse surgery, in Chipping Norton,
claimed GPs' new working practices were increasing the workload of the
county's ambulance service and causing patients to be taken to
hospital unnecessarily. His criticism came as Oxfordshire Ambulance
NHS Trust revealed a surge in demand for its 999 emergency services.
Trust chief executive John Nichols said the number of 'category A' 999
calls -- those involving immediately life-threatening cases --
increased by 30 per cent in November compared with the same month last
year. Emergency call-outs to patients with breathing difficulties had
increased by 50 per cent. Dr Parker said the increase in 999 calls was
due to GPs trying to treat their profession like "any other job" under
pressure from domestic partners not to work unsociable hours. He said
that when he retired 10 years ago, two doctors from his surgery were
on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day, including Christmas Day.
Now just one doctor was on call each night
for the whole of Chipping Norton and surrounding villages, often
without access to medical records for patients registered at different
surgeries. Dr Parker, 75, said it meant GPs themselves called
999 more often as they felt unable to deal with cases. He said: "I'm
ashamed of the service that GPs are proposing. We knew our patients
well and had their records, so they didn't end up in hospital
unnecessarily."
Residents in Oxford will soon be able to
submit planning applications from their home computers after council
leaders agreed to spend £21,000 upgrading its website. The council's
executive board has approved a project to upgrade the planning department
pages so people can submit and comment on planning applications via the
website. Earlier this year, an independent survey by planning consultants
Peter Pendleton Associates judged how useful council planning websites are
to users, how much information is available, and whether the site reduced
people's need to make further inquiries or visit council offices. Councils
were judged against 22 criteria and the results were broken down by
region. Oxford's site -- at www.oxford.gov.uk/planning -- was rated fifth
out of the 63 in the South East.
A major programme amounting to £126m of
investment has been announced for all of west Oxfordshire's former council
homes. It amounts to about £35,000 a house and follows the largest survey
ever carried out on the detailed condition of housing in the district. The
money will be spent over the next 30 years on modernising and improving
the stock of 3,600 homes transferred to the West Oxfordshire Housing
company over two years ago. The work will involve everything from roofs to
windows, electrics and heating systems, and fittings in kitchens and
bathrooms. Tenants have been assured that their rents will not rise
further than the annual inflation rate plus one per cent -- a promise
given at the time of the handover from the district council to the
company.
Heart patients due to have treatment at
an Oxford hospital have had their appointments cancelled so that beds can
be used as an overflow for the casualty department. NHS managers admitted
the action had been taken to cope with extreme pressures at the John
Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington. Since January, staff have managed to
stop long trolley waits in the accident and emergency department, but on
Friday they were forced to use the cardiology day unit to make sure they
could admit the high number of sick people arriving at the hospital. The
nine-bed unit is usually used for patients who come in for day treatments,
like echocardiograms to examine the heart, or for pacemaker insertions.
Karen Bastin, deputy director of operational services, said: "When the JR
is under extreme pressure we have agreed plans for coping. One of the
measures we can take is to use the cardiology day unit for general
patients.
Rookie police from Thames Valley will
still be sent to a training centre in Cheshire despite racist attitudes
exposed by a BBC documentary among officers who spent time there. None of
the eight officers exposed in covert footage shot for the BBC's The
Secret Policeman documentary, screened on Tuesday, were from Thames
Valley. However, four Thames Valley officers
were part of the same intake at Bruche National Training Centre in
Warrington. Chief Supt Paul Kirby, Thames Valley police's head of
personnel, said he had interviewed the four officers and was satisfied
none had been involved with racism at Bruche. He said the force had
rigorous interview and vetting procedures to prevent racists joining the
force, followed up with race-relations training.
Det Insp Gilbert Houalla, of the Thames
Valley Black Police Association, said Chief Constable Peter Neyroud and
his managers were very good on race-related issues, and this filtered down
the ranks. He said: "We are very fortunate that the Chief Constable is a
leading figure in this country in terms of diversity, equality and human
rights issues.
One third of Oxfordshire women aged
between 50 and 64 are not getting vital breast cancer screening within the
routine three-year period. All women in that age group are entitled to
checks every three years, but a shortage of radiographers and radiologists
has left the county unit struggling to cope, leading to a six-month
backlog. Doctors at the Oxfordshire Breast Screening Unit, based at the
Churchill Hospital, in Headington, said they hoped to reduce waiting times
by the end of the year. In the county, 430 women are diagnosed with breast
cancer annually. Latest figures show that only 34,447 (66 per cent) of the
52,122 Oxfordshire women aged between 50-64 had a mammogram within three
years. The Government target is 70 per cent. Some areas in the county met
the target, but in Cherwell Vale -- covering Banbury and Chipping Norton
-- the figure fell to 38 per cent. The importance of regular screening has
been highlighted by the mayor of Woodstock, 58-year-old Gwen Mason. She
had her first breast screening aged 51, and within three months had
surgery to combat cancer. Mrs Mason is now in remission, after having the
diseased tissue and her lymph nodes removed, followed by medication and
radiotherapy. She said: "My cancer was so small and non-aggressive that I
may have got through it anyway, but a lot of other women wouldn't have.
"For an awful lot of women it saves their lives."
Volunteers are being invited to become
the first members of forums set up to monitor health services across
Oxfordshire. The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health
wants members of the public to join a network of health groups. As part of
a new system set up to replace the county's Community Health Council,
Patient and Public Involvement Forums will be set up for every hospital
and primary care trust. Members will have the power to check the standard
of services and influence decision-making within the NHS. To be considered
as a member of the new forums, which will be launched on Monday, December
1, call 0845 1207115 for an application pack, or log on to
www.maketimeforhealth.org
The leader of Oxfordshire County
Council has pledged there will be no extra increase in council tax
because of the asylum seekers' centre that will be built near Bicester.
Keith Mitchell said the new centre, which the council opposed, would
create additional pressure on library and social services. This year's
council tax increase was 13.4 per cent, but that figure should fall
next year. But Mr Mitchell said: "I'm sure the increase from next
April will be the nine per cent that finance officers have predicted.
"Our services will be under more pressure, but the number of asylum
seekers is not large enough to make a significant difference." Thames
Valley Police believed the force would need extra money and officers.
Full details on:
OXFORD MAIL WEBSITE
Facelift for the Rollright Stones
The Rollright Stones will receive a dramatic facelift this Spring after
the Trust running the site was awarded £17000 of government funding. It
will see the original entrance to the Kings Men stone circle restored and
in use for the first time in 120 years. The Whispering Knights and King's
Stone will be made accessible for disabled visitors and money will be
available for new information panels. Site curator Dohn Prout welcomed the
funding as a great achievement for the restoration of the Stones.
THE family of a Chipping Norton waiter who
nearly died following a violent attack in Banbury town centre say
his life has been ruined.
Weakub
Miah, 29, was punched and knocked unconscious in the attack earlier
this year.
Police found Mr Miah, who had been taking a walk after
working in a restaurant on Parsons Street, struggling for breath and
with severe head injuries. He was taken to the Horton Hospital then
transferred to intensive care at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.
He did not regain consciousness until six days later and medics
believe he was lucky to survive. His
attackers were jailed at Oxford Crown
Court this month.
Speaking after the case, Weakub's brother Namwar Miah told the
Banbury Guardian the attack has had long-term repercussions.
Weakub was not released from hospital until July and had to
undergo two brain operations. He still has to attend regular
appointments with a specialist and has only recently stopped
suffering from headaches. Namwar added:
"Although we are extremely relieved that Weakub survived, we have
got to live with the consequences every day.
"He used to be a normal outgoing person but now he only
speaks when he is spoken to and we don't like to leave him alone.
"Physically he has put on a lot of weight because he is not
as mobile as he used to be. He struggles to get out of his chair
without help. "He can hardly walk and he
can't return to work."
