A belated Happy Easter, an update
should have been on here at the beginning of the week but due to having to
travel back and for to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy I have been a bit
limited for time. Suffice to say though, the patient is home and near
recovered. Again, the dedication of NHS staff has to be praised. All the
doctors and nurses went above and beyond (including answering my endless
questions) and once again reinforced to me the value of the NHS in our society
and that it is a service we can all be proud of. Which is of course why I am so
outraged at the latest crisis to hit Fife – staff shortages have led to the
closing of primary care emergency services at Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret, St
Andrews and Glenrothes hospitals for three months. See link - https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/fife/631069/fears-out-of-hours-services-at-fife-hospitals-could-be-lost-for-good/
This is the result of eleven years of
failure by the SNP Scottish Government to properly plan its workforce strategy which has left Scotland with a reduced number of doctors and nursing staff. In
February Scottish Conservative MSP, Miles Briggs asked a parliamentary question
on funding arrangements and it was revealed that the SNP is spending nearly
£500,000 a day on agency staff – that is £171million a year – due to a lack of
planning. Over a decade of mismanagement has led to an increasing reliance on
agency staff, thousands of doctors leaving Scotland and figures indicating that
within a few years there will be a shortage of over 800 GPs across Scotland. See Link - http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2018/02/snps-500k-a-day-on-nhs-agency-staff/
In response to the closure of primary
care emergency services, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife,
Murdo Fraser said: “The reduction in the out-of-hours footprint across Fife is
concerning but not entirely surprising. Health boards across Scotland are
struggling to find clinical staff to fulfil these roles and the Scottish Government
has serious questions to answer over its lack of proper workforces planning.”
Damage to public services across
Scotland is not of course only confined to the NHS; the merging of Scotland’s 8
police forces into the tumultuous establishment of the single Police Scotland, is still behest with crises.
However, again I have to praise the hard-work and dedication of staff. A couple
of weeks ago myself and a cross-party group of Fife Councillors (all parties
were represented except the SNP on my visit – strange that…) visited the police
control centre at Bilston Glen to learn more about the operational work of
policing. I was particularly interested in attending as the themes that have
come up time and time again in my Ward, community councils and TRA meetings
are the lack of visibility of community police and 101 call responses.
Residents have continulously raised concerns
about calling 101 and then a no-show from the police. Youth anti-social
behaviour has been a long-running theme and whilst it is only a minority, the
impact on local communities can be great with worry and stress. Confusion has
also arisen as to whether to call 999 or 101.
Councillors vocalised concerns about calls
from all over Scotland being fed into a centralised system. We were assured
that detailed mapping allows call handlers to have as much, if not more,
knowledge on the ground than local officers had before the merging of the
forces. Whilst I take on board aspects of the approach to feed all calls in
centrally and then radio them back out to local police, I am as yet to be
convinced that this is an effective alternative to the local bobby with the
local knowledge.
A Police Scotland Your View survey in late 2016 found that
more than 40% of people who have dealt with the police over the previous 12
month period were unhappy with the response they got and two thirds said they felt
crime in their area was on the increase. That view very much matches what I hear
when out and about in my Ward – both at community meetings and when talking to
residents. We need to keep these figures in mind alongside a police force
themselves who clearly must be demoralised – 3159 left the forces since its
creation in 2013 (as of December 2016) whilst the merging of the British
Transport Police (BTP) with Police Scotland has been put on hold due,
apparently, to IT system problems. Given the enormous concerns within the BTP
at this controversial merger (which seemed to just be another move to
power-grab by an SNP Government completely obsessed by centralisation of all
public services) this delay is very much welcomed. See links - http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2016/11/survey-reveals-dearth-of-confidence-in-police-scotland/
Within the Ward this week it has been a
little quieter than usual, probably due to the Easter holidays and people being
away or busy during the school break. I attended the Kinghorn Chronicle Coffee
Morning last Saturday where a new and exciting initiative called Kinghorn
Support Squad was launched. The idea is to get a team of volunteers from the
town who can help out a couple of hours here and there with different community
projects. Not everyone has the time to join a local group or sit on a committee
and KSS means you don’t have to! You sign-up and when a project needs
assistance a call is sent out – if you can offer the skills and have a little
time you can volunteer. It seems from the enthusiastic discussions on Saturday and
at the Community Council that this is something the town is very much on-board
with. I am looking forward to seeing what projects come up and where I can help
out. If you are interested in helping out then email the Support Squad on: ksskinghorn@gmail.com
Last week I had a letter in the Fife
Free Press on the topic of Tenants & Residents Associations – their remit
and how to establish one in your local area. Here is what I said, the letter is fairly self-explanatory as to what a TRA is and what an exciting and useful project it can be to a local area:
Dear Sir
Last week I was out with two different Tenants & Residents Associations, one long-running and the other newly-formed.
Invertiel TRA in Kirkcaldy has a
fantastic group of residents who took councillors and Council officers on a
walkabout highlighting areas of concern. I also had the opportunity to chat to
some other residents we met whilst walking around the neighbourhood. Over the
past number of months, I have been working with residents and the school to
address a problem with littering around the viaduct. This has produced some
positive outcomes and now, potentially, the opportunity to facilitate a
long-term solution.
The newly established Central
Burntisland TRA met with Fife Council representatives and councillors last
Monday to lead us on an initial and informative tour of the area. Littering,
dog-fouling, youth anti-social behaviour and lack of parking were all covered.
These issues affect communities across Fife and tenant and resident
associations are a fantastic way to draw attention to and work collectively to
resolve. Being community-led means empowerment of local people who are the most
informed on local issues.
Fife Council can support the
establishment of a TRA, which is a voluntary organisation, and members decide
the issues to focus on. Advice on deciding aims and objectives and applying for
funding grants is also available. Ward councillors are usually quite keen to
get involved and assist!
Yours
Cllr Kathleen Leslie
Scottish Conservative &
Unionist
Ward 9 Burntisland, Kinghorn
& Western Kirkcaldy
Grit Bins
I have also had quite a bit of
correspondence from residents on flooding on local roads, particularly the
A921, the continued closure of the Loch Road and the general abysmal state of
Fife’s roads.
The Kirkcaldy Members Meeting (not the
Area Committee) met late last month and gritting and grit bins were on the
agenda. Fife has 4,100 grit bins, of which they cannot afford to maintain all.
It does also appear that the location and condition of them all is not quite so
clear. A working group of Councillors has been looking at the development of a
strategy on grit bins – a strategy because it appears that until now that has
been lacking. In 1991 there were 1,500 bins with the criteria for them based on
considerations such as altitude but by the early 2000s tracking appeared to
have disappeared and anyone who requested a bin could get one. New developments
also meant new bins. My major concern here is that Winter strategy appears to
be based on “average” Winter conditions – that does not seem to factor in a
Winter such as we have had. I am also concerned that when I was out and about
in the icy conditions I found streets – such as those next to Burntisland
Primary School had no grit on them at all. I just hope that this isn’t one of
these issues that slips off the radar until the next icy Winter.
Education & Children's Services
The big topic at the Education &
Children’s Services Committee was the decision to move to Statutory
Consultation on the rezoning of schools in Dunfermline and West Fife. Comments
on that can be found here – http://www.kathleenleslie.co.uk/2018/03/statutory-consultation-on-proposal-to.html
Since the meeting it appears to have
come to light that a parent who put in a placing request for Dunfermline High
School has had it turned down and is being given “the opportunity” to instead
attend Inverkeithing High School – I find that quite a concerning term to use.
Opportunity is not a word I would ascribe to a mismanaged and hurried attempt
to rezone, due to the poor planning on the part of the previous Administration to
begin the process back when they realised that continued house-building in
Dunfermline may just possibly lead to an increased population and therefore, a
good few more kids…
My colleague Cllr David J Ross asked
officers the question that if a placing request was put in for Dunfermline or
Queen Anne would it be granted. He was given a one word answer – yes.
Therefore, quite what is going on is uncertain and I will be emailing officers
asking for clarification.
Also on the agenda was funding for
voluntary organisations. My colleagues and I were concerned at the fact that
the report was asking councillors to approve almost £4million in spending to
various organisations which had a one line explanation as to what they would
offer. Therefore, we tabled an amendment to the recommendations. It read:
Agenda
Item 9 - “Committee requests this decision is deferred to the next E&CS Committee
with a more-detailed report, outlining on all grants provided to voluntary
organisations with a clear indication of how the money will be spent. Committee
further requests that details be provided on all rejected funding requests.”
However, we did not have to put forward
the amendment as the Convenor recommended that a report be brought to the next
meeting providing, as we had asked, further detail.
We also tabled an amendment to Agenda
Item 11:
“Committee
requests a report on the Kirkcaldy pilot detailing the outcomes of this pilot
prior to implementation across the seven localities. Committee further requests
details of how the pilot has informed future direction of ABCD.”
This was in reference to what the
Directorate is calling – A Better Connected Directorate (ABCD). The pilot was
rolled out with Kirkcaldy schools in February. I only knew this due to sitting
on the Education Forum where the notion had first been raised. The principles of
it – providing more local collaboration make sense but the sticking point for
us was that this was being moved from pilot to across all seven areas without
feedback on the pilot. Again, though rather than take it to the amendment,
where garnering cross-party support would be all but impossible I instead
directly asked officers if we could have a report come back to Committee on the
pilot and was advised, yes we could. Myself and my two colleagues were
satisfied with the response and therefore, had no need to table the amendment.
One thing I have come to realise is
that whilst Full Council may be a mud-slinging contest at times, committees
tend to be where the real work gets done and there are ways and means of
getting desired outcomes and getting some sort of consensus at a cross-party
level.
I have real and serious concerns about attainment,
curriculum, improvement collaboratives, ASN provision and cuts to further
education places under this SNP Government, but I also recognise that councillors in Fife
are working on education matters that are specific to the local authority –
those can include the school estate, attainment and achievement scores, the poverty-related
attainment gap, what is a positive destination – these are what locally elected members are
focussing on. We can’t change national policy, much as many of would like to.
However, we can work to ensure that Fife’s young people are all able to realise
their full potential.
Trains – Stations - £5 off peak insult –
delays of rolling stock
Yes, the Fife Circle saga (excuse the
pun) rolls on. Long-suffering commuters in Fife were dealt a renewed insult
last week when Scotrail-Abellio announced a £5 off peak ticket around Fife –
from Edinburgh to Dundee as some sort of “compensation” – lets just read that
again – a £5 off peak ticket. And that is helpful to the early morning commuter
who has been affected by station skipping, cancellations and lack of carriages?... Read my comments here - https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/scotrail-s-5-ticket-apology-branded-a-very-poor-gesture-1-4712650
It is high-time the Transport Minister
gets this mess sorted out. To add to the woes of Fife commuters, new Hitachi
electric rolling stock that was to come into service in May has been delayed.
This means that trains and carriages that were to be moved to Fife have now
been delayed. My comments to the media sum-up my feelings – “It seems like Fife
is at the bottom of the heap again”. Once again, do get in touch with me about
your experiences of delayed trains, cancellations and stop skipping. More
pressure needs to be put on Scotrail and the Scottish Government should be
holding them to account, something that does not appear to be happening at the
moment. Read the link here - https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/transport/new-trains-delay-knocks-fife-rail-improvements-off-track-1-4719122
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