York: Police cuts 'could be devastating'

The chief constable of North Yorkshire Police has described possible cuts to the force's budget as "potentially devastating" - reports the BBC.

The government is considering changing the way in which grant funding to police authorities is calculated.

North Yorkshire Police said its budget could be cut by £10m - jeopardising jobs - if the changes went ahead.

Grahame Maxwell said the move could ruin his force's "relatively stable financial footing".

North Yorkshire Police currently receives £73m a year from central government, 58% of its total funding.

Mr Maxwell said: "These changes could be devastating for North Yorkshire Police if they were brought in and would certainly impact on the level of service we could deliver to people in North Yorkshire and York.

"Our current financial plans show that we are in any event facing a £5m budgetary gap next year, which we are planning to manage through a stringent analysis of all areas of service.

"However, any further reductions in grant will put real pressure on our ability to continue to develop safer neighbourhoods - if indeed we can sustain existing levels, which is doubtful - and will certainly preclude any further investment in protective services."

Jane Kenyon, chairman of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, said she concurred with Mr Maxwell's view and would be seeking urgent talks with the Home Secretary and North Yorkshire's MPs.

The Home Office's consultation exercise on policing funding formula is expected to be completed at the end of October, with an announcement on the findings due in November.

Manchester: MP defiant over hypocrisy claims

Health minister Ivan Lewis has denied he is a hypocrite after supporting a shake-up which includes the closure of a maternity unit he campaigned to save - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Last year, the Bury South MP joined a march aimed at keeping full maternity and children's in-patient care at Fairfield General Hospital.

But he has now backed the decision of an independent panel to close four of Greater Manchester's 12 maternity departments, including Fairfield.

Mr Lewis called criticism a smear campaign and said it was unfair and untrue because he has always accepted doctors' arguments that the current system was unsafe.

He said that although he believes there is a strong geographical argument in favour of a full service for children at Bury, his constituents will benefit from the £60m investment that comes with the shake-up.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claimed Mr Lewis had bowed to pressure from Gordon Brown to back the cuts.

He said: "This is an incredible U-turn by Ivan Lewis. Only a few months ago he was campaigning to save his local maternity services. Ivan Lewis has been squeezed by Number 10. Either that or he is indecisive in the extreme."

Maternity units in Trafford, Rochdale and Salford will also close by 2011 because of a shortage of specialist staff.

Sharron Entwhistle, from Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, which led the support for the unit, said: "Ivan Lewis has supported us and we are grateful for that - as a result of our campaign we have won concessions.

"I don't think he is a hypocrite but as a health minister he should have a lot of influence and we believe he could have done more to help - whether he could have made more of a difference, who knows?"

Derbyshire: Post offices under threat

Residents in Derbyshire are being urged to give their opinions on the future of local post offices.

A six-week public consultation is due to start at the end of September as the Post Office gets ready to announce closures in the county, due to insufficient government subsidies available to support loss-making offices.

The Post Office currently has plans to close some branches in the Chesterfield, High Peak and North East Derbyshire areas.

County councillor Geoff Carlile said he needed input from county residents.

"Post offices play a vital social and economic role in local communities and it is important we have a stable, viable network of offices for the future," said Mr Carlile.

"I will be looking closely at the Post Office's plans in our area as we need to ensure that it has taken full account of the needs of communities affected.

"We have been working hard to ensure that services are safeguarded and we will do whatever we can to use our influence to retain services where they are needed."

Norfolk: Fresh funds sought for A140 bypass

Money to build a £21m bypass will have to be found from other sources as government funding has been refused - reports the Eastern Daily Press.

Work on the long-awaited A140 bypass at Long Stratton cannot start because the project was not given priority status by the government last year. South Norfolk Council is now looking at alternative ways to find the money.

A shortage of government money has forced choices to be made between wider regional schemes and smaller-scale projects like the Long Stratton bypass.

Despite the benefits of such local schemes to traffic-choked towns and villages, it's the regional schemes that are currently getting the limited government funding available.

Alternatively contributions from housing developers could also be used to pay for the bypass, which would have the capacity to remove around 20,000 cars a day from the village, but in return a large number of houses would need to be built.

This is yet another example of the government not having enough money to make all the improvements to our infrastructure that are needed.

So it's surely completely inappropriate for them to be intending to reward the audit-failing EU with a 63% increase in payments - an extra £2.5bn a year on top of the £3.5bn we're already paying.

The £21m needed for this bypass is less than TWO days worth of the money the government wants to hand the EU. Which is a better use for that money?

And where do Norfolk's MPs stand ... will they be supporting the bypass, or approving even more cash for the wasteful EU?

Frontline policing under threat - claim

Frontline policing numbers in Norfolk will be slashed if ministers approve a £3.6m funding cut, despite spiralling costs as officers struggle to cope with an influx of immigrants - reports the Eastern Daily Press.

Officials at Norfolk police will meet next week to discuss the “nightmare” scenario which comes against a backdrop of a succession of grant cuts in recent years which have already left the county's budget stripped to the bone.

Police authority chairman Stephen Bett accused the government of being out of touch with rural areas, saying it had failed to take account of changes brought about by population growth brought about by an influx of immigrants.

His comments echo those of Cambridgeshire chief constable Julie Spence who said a squeeze on funding caused by out-of-date population figures meant there had been no extra cash for officers in the past five years.

Mr Bett said that the very best Norfolk could hope for is that it maintains its current level of funding which led to a 7% council tax increase this year - the fourth highest increase in the country.

At worst there will be “major and widespread” cuts, including a reduction in officers on the frontline.

“Until now we have had a level of protection meaning that, at worst, we would not lose funding as we are guaranteed a minimum increase,” Mr Bett said.

“However, the formula used to calculate grants is being reviewed and this protection could be lost.

“If this happens we stand to lose millions of pounds from our budget. Our budget is already at full-stretch following a disappointing settlement last year.

“This has left us extremely vulnerable and we would have to carry out a review at all levels. This would certainly include frontline policing and may also mean that we do not introduce safer neighbourhood teams in all areas as originally planned.”

Authority treasurer Bob Summers said council tax must increase by 1% for every £450,000 needed. This would mean an 8% increase would be needed in Norfolk if the changes go ahead.

Earlier this year the authority was reprimanded by the government for increasing council tax beyond its approved level and warned ministers would have “no hesitation” in imposing strict penalties if there was a repeat of this increase.

Mr Summers added that early signs were that nationally the settlement will be an increase of 2.7% but some of this will be skimmed off to meet Home Office costs bringing the rise in way below inflation.

OECD: UK trails Slovenia in class sizes

Class sizes in Britain are among the highest in the developed world, reports the Daily Telegraph today.

An international study published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revealed that only six other countries - Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Chile and Israel - have more children in primary school lessons

Teachers criticised the findings and challenged Gordon Brown to deliver on his pledge to match budgets in state schools to those in the private sector.

Parents claimed that large classes were to blame for thousands of children leaving primary school unable to read or write properly.

The annual study – Education at a Glance – said that 25.8 pupils aged five to 11 shared the average lesson in 2005, and this was "large by international standards". It put Britain behind countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, Mexico and Slovenia in a league table of 29 nations.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "While Britain has now achieved the average spent on education by industrialised countries there is much more to do.

"I look to the fulfilling of the Prime Minister's commitment to match public with private spending on education. State school class sizes must be brought down."

Norfolk: Protest at hospital closure

Today more than a thousand letters from people in Norfolk appealing to the government to intervene and save a much-loved cottage hospital will be handed to the Westminster.

April Pond, Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Broadland, will give more than 1,100 letters from Norfolk residents concerned about the proposed closure of St Michael's hospital in Aylsham, to the Department of Health.

The letters have been sent to April over recent weeks, many with added notes of personal experiences of the care at St Michael's, and they appeal directly to Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, for his help in saving the hospital, which was the only one targeted for closure in a shake up of Norfolk PCT services.

Ms Pond said: “The Department of Health has told us that health care decisions should be made locally, but we are saying that by ordering the repayment of the huge deficit the Norfolk Primary Care Trust has in less than a year, a huge pressure is being brought by the department to cut and close much needed and much loved local hospitals.

“We feel Norfolk is being badly treated and ask for Alan Johnson to intervene.”

Trust warns of £15m hospital debt

Swansea NHS Trust says it faces going £15.5m into the red unless it closes 86 beds and cuts around 750 jobs - reports the BBC.

Amicus and British Medical Association staff officials say the move is needed to safeguard services and patient care but Unison said it was "unacceptable".

The union has called for a halt to the bed closure programme claiming it was being driven by "financial cut-backs and not any planned improvements in health care".

The trust, which currently employs 9,500 staff and manages health services across the city including Morriston and Singleton Hospitals, claims it could be £15.5m in debt by the end of this financial year.

It said it has been able to avoid large debts in recent years through "one off" savings but now needed to introduce a programme of clinical efficiencies.

It said around 750 posts would go over the next three years through "natural wastage" and it would reduce 86 beds from around 1,800 that are currently used.

Post office closures hit estates

People living in housing estates surrounding cities are some of those worst hit by post office closures, according to the BBC.

A new report by the National Consumer Council said that the closures had reduced services that are already scarce in these areas.

The report found post offices were crucial for residents who are often on low incomes or unemployed.

It said those most reliant on them, such as the elderly, were least able to lobby for post offices to stay open.

The impact was felt particularly badly in estates on the outskirts of towns, because there was also a dearth of basic services such as banks and supermarkets.

Professor Richard Webber of University College London, who analysed the findings, said: "At a national level, Post Office Ltd has worked with sub-postmasters' preferences to decide which post offices should be closed.

"However, in practice, a consistent pattern is not easy to discern.

"Some neighbourhoods of acute social need do not seem to have benefited from protection and the closure rate is very uneven between similar areas, as well as across different regions of the country."

Nicola O'Reilly, of the National Consumer Council, said: "Protecting vulnerable communities from the impact of post office closures is no simple task.

"People are as important as places in these decisions. It's vital that plans for the next 2,500 closures protect the people who would be hardest hit."

Yorkshire: NHS chiefs tackled over job cuts

Union officials are to meet NHS bosses for talks over cost-cutting measures that could see hundreds of jobs axed at Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals, in Yorkshire.

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, needs to plug a £15m shortfall in its budget by cutting 600 jobs.

Ward closures and reductions in non-clincal support services are also threatened.

Unison said it feared the job cuts could be as high as 1,000 out of a total workforce of 2,500.

Brenda Lloyd, Unison's branch secretary, said: "How can they hope to provide good health services to people in this area with this level of cuts?"

Cardiff: Ambulances waiting over 50 minutes at A&E

Patients are regularly waiting more than 50 minutes in ambulances outside south east Wales A&E departments, reports the BBC today.

The Welsh Ambulance Service have revealed that, over the last three months, an average 106 vehicles a week have waited more than 50 minutes to deliver patients.

'Bed blocking' and people needlessly turning up at casualty is being blamed for the problems. But in February there were delays at two hospitals due to a shortage of beds to cope with the volume of 999 calls.

The University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff claim 160 of its beds were unavailable due to delayed transfers of care, and that the problem was getting worse.

In a statement, it also said a third of emergency patients could be treated by a GP or pharmacist. But often the patient is not the right person to choose where they should be treated, as they are often not aware of the all the treatments required for a particular injury.

The summer months are usually a quiet period for the ambulance service, but a spokesman said it has been encountering problems at major district hospitals.

Mike Cassidy, director of ambulance services in Wales, said how often and how long ambulances were having to wait varied.

He said that since February most serious patients had been admitted immediately while some less serious cases waited three to four hours "on occasions".

Cornwall: County to meet fire minister over fire brigade cuts

At the County Council meeting today Councillor Ken Yeo, Executive Member for Public Protection, announced that the council will be calling for a meeting with the Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda MP - reports the Falmouth Packet.

County Councillors wish to meet with the Fire Minister to discuss the funding issues for Cornwall County Fire Brigade.

Ken Yeo made the announcement during his response to Councillor Denis Dent (Newquay West) who had asked what measures were being taken to ensure a fully maintained fire service, not only at Falmouth and Camborne but also in Newquay.

Councillor Ken Yeo said: "Cornwall County Council will be calling for a delegation, in consultation with local MPs, to demand a meeting with the Fire Minister to discuss funding issues for Cornwall County Fire Brigade"

He continued: "We need to ensure that the Fire Service provides a service across the County which is not only a secure and responsive service but also one which works within the financial resources given to it by the County Council.

"This is dependant upon the level of Government funding the council receives. At this stage the Government shows no interest in making any financial exception for Cornwall's Fire Service, however the demographics of Cornwall are unique.

"This is something we wish to present to the Minister when we take the delegation to Parliament"

Hertfordshire: Police cuts could reach £5m

Budget cuts of up to £5million could hit our police next year, the Hertfordshire Police Federation has warned - according to the Watford Observer.

Chairman Detective Constable Alan Kemp has warned of a damaging effect on morale and officer numbers when the force's budget settlement is agreed at the end of the month.

Police funding is currently split between a bloc central government grant (the budget settlement) and a Police Authority precept added to council tax bills. The budgets run from April to April.

With increases in the latter funding likely to be capped at 5% (as it was last year) by the government, the federation is warning of a significant drop in funding of up to £5million.

Detective Constable Kemp warns this could lead to retiring staff not being replaced and a further strain on his already stretched members.

He said: "We know savings will be made but we're not sure what extent they will be yet.

"In real terms all forces are having their budgets cut year on year and it's really beginning to bite. It has to have a knock-on effect on staff."

A Hertfordshire Constabulary representative confirmed that a government funding cut "in real terms" was likely but stressed next year's budget, to be drawn up by the Police Authority, was yet to be agreed.

He confirmed, however, that savings would probably have to be made. Last year's budget was agreed at more than £165million.

Cumbria: Hospital shake-up sparks protest

Around 3,000 people joined hands in Kendal to demonstrate against cuts at the town's hospital, reports the BBC.

Protestors formed a three-mile human chain around the Westmorland General on Saturday.

Last year Morecambe Bay NHS Trust's directors approved proposals to stop treating acute conditions at the Westmorland Hospital, forcing patients to travel to Barrow or Lancaster for treatment.

The hospital bosses have defended the decision to cut the services, claiming that patients will receive better treatment at Barrow and Lancaster - dodging the question of why services couldn't be 'improved' at Westmorland Hospital instead.

Clearly a lack of public money - not least because it's being wasted by being handed to the audit-failing EU - is the reason patients across the country are being forced to travel ever-further for the treatments they need.