News and updates from Ed Fordham, County Councillor for Loundsley Green and Newbold division on Derbyshire County Council, and the Brockwell ward on Chesterfield Borough Council.
It is a huge event, brilliantly organised and takes place in Stand Road Park - open to all of the family and welcoming for everyone and all backgrounds.
I will be there and will be encouraging all of my friends to come along.
So in a spirit of inclusion, it is amazing and heartwarming and delightful to see the rush of progress flags across the Town's Market Square - its a huge display of confidence and to be applauded. W
ell done Chesterfield.
https://www.chesterfieldpride.co.uk/
Due to the collapse of the Norwood Tunnel over a century ago Chesterfield has ceased to be a 'canal town'. but now, finally, thanks to the decades of work of the Chesterfield Canal Trust that is set to change.
The range of bodies that have been and remain involved are many and complex yet one of the most significant is Derbyshire County Council. In many regards they hold most of the keys to the canal being reconnected to the national navigable network.
Over the last year, under Covid and with all of the time restirctions that has nvolved, I have been exploring the Chesterfield Canal from West Stockwith right up to the Norwood Tunnel where the current journey ends. Today I reached the very end of the navigation as it stands and it felt like a real personal landmark. With the boat unable to make the last few metres, I took to a small canoe and paddled right up to the closed tunnel entrance.
As my canoe could go no futher, i felt a sense of optimism for the Borough. My canoe was a small step, but a significant one for me in better understanding just how important this will be when navigable again to Chesterfield. Seeing for myself what the scale of the project involves, and knowing the landscape and communities that the canal flows through in coming to our town. It's noteworthy that the current terminus where the tunnel collapsed all that time ago is now in the Borough of Rotherham at Kiverton Park.
It was a real sense of exhilaration as I paddled to the current end of the canal, and reaffirmed my opinion that this next stage of work that the Society has underway and to which the Borough and County Council have signed up, is critical to the towns economic and tourism future. I'm signed up and a member of the Chesterfield Canal Trust - are you?
https://chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk/
Under Oral Questions to the Leader I asked about the Landscapes Review that the Government have commissioned and whether Derbyshire would be positive and constructive in its response to the review. The reply was helpfully positive and I intend to follow this topic up with some definitive proposals.
We received a report on the need to appoint a senior post of Director of Children’s Services. My own group is not represented on the interview panel and so, as a member of the Looked After Children Board for the County, I asked that specific attention was given to the qualification of candidates in this area as I feel it is a growing and difficult area for the Council.
There are a number of urgent decisions that are often passed between meetings and this has included additional spending on the Hollis Lane Link Road in Chesterfield. I noted my concerns that the project was running over budget by £1.984million or nearly 25%. My concerns were noted.
And then we debated a motion on declaring a climate emergency in Derbyshire. The motion was passed but was heavily amended and I have written elsewhere on the poor politics that littered the debate. The worst bit was the shameless political game playing by the opposition Labour Group which included some delicious irony. The Labour councillors on Derbyshire are pushing for specific dates and targets - the very thing that have refused to do at Chesterfield; they are calling for an inclusive working group of residents, councillors and specialists - precisely as they have disbanded the same group at Chesterfield; and they are calling for greater Scrutiny opportunities - as they have refused to enable at Chesterfield and have removed the Climate Change action plan from the Scrutiny agenda. It’s hypocrisy of the worst order and Labour seem oblivious and happy to be hypocrites. It makes no sense.
Odd times indeed.
Today I felt I let down the people of Derbyshire. It was a meeting of the full council of Derbyshire County Council and I am a newly elected councillor and the Liberal Democrat Group Leader.
On the agenda paper was a motion to declare a climate emergency.
It was all very straight forward - and yet as the opposition Labour Group proposed the motion it was clear that this was a repeat of a failed attempt by them two years ago.
As they finished speaking the Tory controlling and majority Group moved an amendment that removed the word ‘emergency’ from the entire motion (except the name of the motion) and drained it of meaningful actions and commitments.
Within seconds the debate had reduced itself to a farce and we were, as a council, trapped into a daft and circular row over the trivial wording of partisan amendments.
The only losers were the people of Derbyshire - to make matters worse the Labour Leader in a pre-planned stunt led a walk out of her councillors as they lost the vote to the Conservatives.
So my own Group having voted against the amendment voted in favour of a motion that was called ‘Declaring a Climate Emergency in Derbyshire’ which actually did no such thing.
It was all a demonstration of poor politics by both those parties and a shameful exhibition of how things should not be done. My own Group were unable to stop the sham from unfolding in front of us.
As an individual councillor and as a community activist I left feeling ashamed at the reality of what the Council had failed to achieve. The residents of Derbyshire and this planet itself both deserve better.
I am sorry and I want to assure my residents that I will work harder for a better politics - you deserve no less.
Ed Fordham
This letter appeared in the Derbyshire Times https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/opinion/letter-people-of-derbyshire-have-been-let-down-by-poor-politics-from-tories-and-labour-3320588
Today was the first meeting of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee for Health in the new Council.
The process felt slightly strained with councillors in the Council Chamber in Matlock and all of the health professionals in zoom from afar.
I was able to ask a fair few questions and pressed Sharon Martin, the Executive Chief Operating Officer of the Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust on the plans to catch up on planned care. There is of course a huge backlog in the aftermath of Covid but I remain sceptical that the recovery cab be so easily handled. We were told that going from 6 operating theatres to eleven at Chesterfield was possible and planned but I have asked that the transition be reported to the next meeting.
Further, I asked about the waiting times for ophthalmology and questioned whether it was accurate that from a waiting time of 18 weeks it has dropped to 11 weeks. Again I have asked for the numbers to be checked but I remain sceptical that this is accurate.
When it came to mental healthcare there is welcome investment in the provision and quality of care for the Hartington suit at Chesterfield and this is to be in place by Spring 2024. Whilst there is no reduction in the provision I questioned Andy Harrison and Mick Burrows if it was likely that we would not need additional mental health bed capacity in three years time and that in fact we would quite quickly see we had greater need than now. I was assured it was suitable and that there is recruitment of mental health nurses who will deal with community care (as it were) but I will keep a close eye on this as again I found myself being sceptical.
The final issue we discussed was around dementia care and I raised what seems to be the presumption that those who are married or partnered to anyone with dementia is assumed to be the carer. I was told by Mike Hammond that this was not the presumption, but my experience and feedback from residents suggests otherwise.
More to follow on all of these but this hopefully gives you in insight into the issues and the opportunities we have as councillors to ask and to challenge.
We have been asked to put forward issues of healthcare for scrutiny and i have already flagged dentistry and how that is handled in Covid and via 111. What issues would you like me to raise?
