On Monday 27th January, Calderdale Council Cabinet will decide on a proposal to invest £10K of Calderdale Council money in obtaining the legal and financial advice needed to set up an Industrial and Provident Society (aka a Community Benefit Society) that will develop community renewable energy projects across Calderdale.
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SOS Hebden Bridge, variously named as Save Our Shops Hebden Bridge or Sod Off Sainsbury’s Hebden Bridge, is calling on people who don’t want to see a Sainsbury’s Local on the site of the old fire station on Valley Road to write letters asap to Calderdale Council Planning Committee, objecting to the Sainsbury’s planning application.
The problem of serious air pollution along the main A646 through Hebden Bridge and Luddenfoot will be the topic of a special public meeting of the Upper Calder Valley Sustainable Transport Group (STG) on Tuesday, 18th February at 7pm in the Greenwood Room at the Town Hall in Hebden Bridge.
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Here’s the basic info from Todmorden Civic Society.
Following a quick debate on the Gagging Bill that many MPs described as “shoddy” and “shambolic”, Craig Whittaker MP followed Conservative party orders and voted with the majority of MPs to overturn recent improvements made by the House of Lords.
MPs following the Coalition Government line voted to:
As reported in Hansard, many MPs found the debate shambolic, with the Government unable to clearly explain what it was proposing to do, and no time for MPs to absorb and understand its last-minute proposals.
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The public does not have access to the National Clinical Advisory Team (NCAT) Report on the Calderdale A&E reorganisation. This report contains proposals about the future of Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E departments.
Dr Walsh, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Chief Officer, told NHS Calderdale 38 Degrees that Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) has commissioned the NCAT report, and the report is internal to the CHFT.
It will be late spring before Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group decides what it wants to do about the report’s proposals and then reveals this in a public consultation.
Trafford Council’s legal challenge against the construction of Barton Renewable Energy Plant (Davyhulme Incinerator) is to take place in a High Court hearing in February.
Trafford Council is taking on Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who overruled the Trafford Council Planning Committee’s unanimous refusal of planning permission for the Incinerator and gave permission for Peel Energy to go ahead and build it.
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On Saturday 18th January, people queued in Sowerby Bridge market to sign a petition asking Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group to protect local NHS services from profit-hungry private health companies. Over 80 signatures were added to the petition at the Calderdale 38 degrees NHS campaign group’s information stall.
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“It’s not possible to run the NHS like Tesco’s supply chain where everything is kept commercially confidential.”
This is the view of David Lock, the barrister instructed by Cambridge Stop the NHS Sell Off.
Social Investigations reports that a law firm acting for campaign group Stop the NHS Sell Off in Cambridgeshire has accused Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) of acting unlawfully by failing to allow opportunities for meaningful public engagement in the tender of an £800m contract for older people’s services.
Patients only have until the end of February to opt out from having their personal confidential medical data extracted from GPs’ computers on a monthly basis, without their consent, and sent to a new national database called care.data.
Starting from March 2014, the Health & Social Care Act 2012 requires GPs to send each patient’s Personal Confidential Data (PCD) data to the care.data system without any prior consent – unless patients specifically opt out. It’s simple to opt out, as outlined below.
The care.data system is run by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), using software and services procured from ATOS, a private company.
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