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Category: local services

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Local Bus Service Review

Local bus service reviewLocal Bus Service Review – Be Heard

We have been provided information below by Essex Council, if you, or those you know, rely on local bus services then we encourage you to respond to this consultation.  The details suggest that ECC has proposed minor changes to the 17 and 66/66A services but the Sunday 67B service appears to have been rerouted so that it no longer serves the village. This will need checking out more thoroughly during the consultation period. ECC has not included Chambers’ 754 – 6 services in their affected/unaffected list because these routes have no subsidised journeys.

Local Bus Service Network Review Consultation September 2015.

Bus consultationOver 2015, Essex County Council (ECC) is carrying out a thorough review of its support for contracted local bus services across the County. The role of the County Council under the Transport Acts is to look at where market failure occurs in the bus network, decide whether a service is needed, and if, in the council’s opinion, it is, then to provide one.

Early Review

The County Council needs a way to balance the differing potential transport needs of residents when allocating funding and to manage the network in the light of changes to the commercial bus network, travel demand and changing corporate priorities over time.  As part of the review the County Council carried out a series of Area Review Meetings throughout June and July 2015.  We have listened to the comments, suggestions and ideas that were raised through these meetings and took them into account when re-planning the network.

Consultation

Over September and October 2015 the County will be carrying out a more detailed consultation that sets out a range of proposed route and service revisions to the contracted local bus network and a revised policy for determining the priority that will be given to supporting different types of service in future.  This consultation will take the form of a district based questionnaire, asking for views on changes to the contracted bus network in each district/borough/city with supporting information. These will be made available on line and through the public library network. We will also make them available through as many parish/town/district council offices as possible.  Hard copy of these documents  will be available from the week commencing 21st September 2015

A supporting document, explains in more detail the contract changes, how they will affect our customers and how demand responsive transport works.  It also lists timetables where a change has been proposed.  This document can be found on line at:

Whilst we encourage residents to complete the survey on line, we understand a paper copy is sometimes preferred.  If you require additional copies of the questionnaire please ring 08457 430 430.  There is a freepost address to aid the return of the questionnaire.

If you or the residents you are representing have a visual impairment or need assistance completing the questionnaire, there is the option of completing the survey over the telephone, or obtain it in an alternative format by calling 08457 430 430.

The closing date for submitting the survey is the 21st October 2015.

Once the consultation is complete, the replies received will be considered carefully and used to help finalise the proposals that will then be considered for approval by Essex County Council’s Cabinet. We will also collate all the responses from the survey and summarise them as part of our report, although it will not identify individual people and your name will not be mentioned in the reports that we write for this purpose.

 

Yours sincerely,

Helen Morris
Place Commissioning
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: – 08457 430 430

 

 

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Attended Freighter this weekend

Attended Freighter this weekend

Make the most of this Free Skip Service from CBC at the Orpen Hall Car Park on Saturday 22nd August 2015 between 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

Colchester Borough Council will be in West Bergholt at the Orpen Hall car park with their ‘Attended Freighter’ to collect small loads of household items that are not collected as part of your regular kerbside collection.

Please don’t use this service to dispose of items which can be recycled, although you can bring garden waste separately which will be composted.

Please note that they will cannot accept any of the following items:

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Hand in hand – volunteer to tidy our streets

Hand in hand litter pickHand in hand

CBC’s local Community Zone Team, together with members from the road sweeping team, are holding a ‘Hand in Hand’ day in West Bergholt from 9.30am to 2pm on Tuesday 11th August.  They’ll be litter picking, sweeping roads and footpaths, cleaning and painting street name signs and generally sprucing the area up.

Come along and help for some or all of the day – volunteers are to meet at the Orpen Hall at 9.30am.  Please wear sensible outdoor clothes and footwear.  All equipment will be provided.

Find out more from Zone Warden Richard Dunn on 07990 996537.

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Summer Reading Challenge 2015

Guinness World RecordsSummer Reading Challenge 2015

Help make this a record breaking summer

Every year the national Summer Reading Challenge aims to keep the country’s children reading throughout the holidays and as this year’s theme is ‘Record Breakers’, Essex Libraries wants as many pledges of support as possible to set a new Guinness World Record™ for ‘the most number of pledges received for a reading campaign’, and to contribute to an Essex record.

Children pledge to visit their local library, read six books of their choice and collect stickers in six categories to secure medals. Adults and volunteers pledge to support children to read. Older children can take part in a reading and arts programme called ImagiNation.

Councillor Roger Hirst, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Libraries, Planning and the Environment said:

Getting more children to read for pleasure during the summer holidays will be a fantastic achievement. This record attempt will be used to highlight the importance of reading for pleasure as well as the importance of libraries in communities. I want to see Essex playing its part in creating this new world record.

The Summer Reading Challenge is produced by The Reading Agency in association with Guinness World Records™ and delivered by libraries, bringing together fact and fiction and helping young readers to discover some wonderful and truly amazing records from around the world.

Record Breakers and ImagiNation run from 11 July to Saturday 5 September in all Essex libraries and mobile libraries.

Note – the Mobile Library’s next visits are scheduled for 21st July, 4th August, 18th August and 1st September visiting Albany Road, Lexden Road, Queens Road & Chapel Road on each of those afternoons.

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Latest News from Essex County Council

ECC-NewsLatest News from Essex County Council

Burning questions

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service wants your views on how it keeps you safe in your home and community.

Residents are being urged to have their say in the future redesign of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS), through a 12 week consultation that starts today (Monday June 15) and ends on Sunday September 6.

The consultation process, the main element of the Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP), aims to address several key issues impacting on the fire service such as the declining number of call-outs and the need to increase the focus on preventing fires and emergencies from happening.

It will also look at major issues such as response times, and the ambitious target of having a working smoke alarm in every Essex home.

Have your say here.

If you’re happy and you know it

Baby and Toddler Rhymetime veteran volunteer Peter Cave is 91 and is living proof you are never too old to volunteer; Peter Cave has been volunteering at the Baby and Toddler Rhymetime session at Chelmsford Library since earlier in the year and intends to carry on his sterling singing and storytelling role after he turns 91 – why not get involved yourself?

Better service, same price

Frozen prices, more options and an improved Meals on Wheels service is coming your way.  Essex County Council (ECC) took a decision that will see prices for Meals on Wheels frozen and the service improved, following today’s Cabinet meeting.  As part of the decision, a one year extension has been agreed to the county’s existing Meals on Wheels service.

Get exploring!

Go on an adventure in one of our country parks and send us a picture from your trip to win free parking for six months!

Colchester Local Highways Panel funding

Colchester Local Highways Panel (LHP) is set to benefit from a £1million boost which will enable a variety of small highways schemes to get underway.  Essex County Council is allocating the funding to Colchester LHP for 2015/16.

Projects will include upgrading the public footpath near Wivenhoe railway station to provide disabled access, building a new wooden bus shelter on St Ives Road in Peldon and pedestrian crossing improvements on Plume Avenue in Prettygate.

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NHS seek views on service restrictions

NE Essex Clinical Commissioning GroupClinicians want to hear local views on plans to restrict services

Clinicians at North East Essex CCG are seeking local people’s views on their plans to restrict IVF services in the future – and they are inviting everyone to give their feedback.  Under the plans, they are proposing restrictions to the current IVF service as it does not provide sufficient benefit to the overall health economy.

Certain groups of patients would still be able to access IVF: for instance, those patients who are undergoing medical treatment that would leave them infertile.

They also propose that couples experiencing difficulties in conceiving could still seek medical advice through their GP in the first instance.

Dr Hasan Chowhan, Clinical Director at the North East Essex CCG, said: We recognise that infertility is a very difficult issue for those affected by it and we have not taken this proposal lightly or without engagement with other clinical professionals.  We fully intend to review this decision in the near future.

Between 2013/14, the CCG paid for 107 fertility procedures which amounted to £386k – the equivalent of:

  • 25 drug treatment courses available for breast cancer;
  • 15 community nurses;
  • 104 hip replacements;
  • 108 patients being admitted to an acute stroke unit at Colchester General Hospital.

Samantha Hepplewhite, Acting Chief Officer at the North East Essex CCG, said:

We have managed to achieve around £35m savings over recent years.  However this challenge will continue as we need to find a further £14m savings each year for the next four years.

We have a requirement to stay within budget and if we do not implement these decisions and further proposals then we would have to select other services to restrict.  Current local demands for healthcare services are costing more money than is currently available.

In addition, the CCG is also intending to restrict the following services:

  • Any Qualified Provider – Spinal Service – The CCG would control activity and expenditure for manual therapy and spinal services, ahead of these services moving to the lead provider arrangement in April 2016.
  • Clinical Priorities Policy – The purpose of this policy is to provide a mechanism for deciding whether referral of an individual patient for a specific assessment and treatment should be funded, based on clinical effectiveness.We are reviewing this policy to bring it in line with other NHS commissioners.
  • Continuing Healthcare – We believe that new patients requiring NHS continuing healthcare care at home, should be entitled to up to 10% above what it would cost for the same care in a residential or nursing home setting.
  • Gluten free – The CCG is restricting the prescribing of gluten free foods to young people, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and stopping prescribing these products altogether to all other adults.  These products are now available in shops and there is a variety of alternatives widely available.
  • Threshold for elective procedures – All patients being referred for non-urgent elective surgery and who are smokers should be referred to smoking cessation services at the initial referral/assessment/appointment.  Meanwhile, overweight and obese patients should be strongly encouraged to lose weight before their operation.  Failure to attend smoking cessation or weight loss programmes may have an impact on whether individuals could undergo their procedure.
  • Vasectomy and female sterilisation – The community vasectomy and female sterilisation services are being reviewed by the CCG as these services have no or limited clinical value – rather they are considered as one of many forms of contraception.  Both vasectomy and female sterilisation will however be available in cases of complex health needs.

Please see our consultation document with further details at www.neessexccg.nhs.uk

The CCG is holding a number of engagement events over the coming weeks aimed allowing local people to find out more about its plans.

Date Venue
Friday 26 June (3pm) Clacton – Sam’s Hall, CVST, Rosemary Road, Clacton CO15 1NZ
Tuesday 7 July (6pm) Colchester – Room 12a, Primary Care Centre, Turner Road, Colchester CO4 5JR
Friday 10 July (2pm) Clacton – Princes Theatre, Town Hall, Station Road, Clacton CO15 1SE
Thursday 16 July (6.30pm) Clacton – Princes Theatre, Town Hall, Station Road, Clacton CO15 1SE

Please email to confirm your attendance at any of the above events –

[antibot mailto=”[email protected]”]

The closing date for feedback on our IVF proposal is Monday 7 September 2015.  If you have any feedback in relation to these changes, please email your comments to [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”] or write to PALS, North East Essex CCG, Primary Care Centre, Turner Road, Colchester CO4 5JR.

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Colchester News, Market, Park & Ride

Colchester News – Market, Park & Ride

Latest news updates received from Colchester Borough Council…

Market_logoColchester Market has a stylish new home

Colchester Market has moved to its new home on Colchester High Street. The new site has bigger, sophisticated, branded stalls providing a mix of exciting new products alongside regular favourite traders. Find out how you could become a trader to trial your small business idea here>>.

Park and Ride service now open

Click for larger image

Essex County Council have launched the new Colchester Park and Ride facility. With a car park situated north of the A12, just off  junction 28, it links to Colchester Railway Station and Colchester Town centre.

Fares

  • Adult daily: £3 (Monday to Saturday)
  • Adult weekly: £15
  • Adult monthly: £55
  • Children (aged between 5 and 15 years inclusive) – daily £1, weekly £5, monthly £20.
  • Children under 5 years old travel for free at all times

Concessions

Concessionary pass holders travel free after 9am Monday-Friday and all day Saturdays.

Find out more here>>

Have your say on The Wonderhouse

The Wonderhouse is an exciting new concept, which will transform Colchester’s heritage offer and provide an innovative attraction for local residents and visitors. We would like to hear your views on it.

The distinctive history and heritage of Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded town, is reflected by the rich range of objects collected by Colchester Museums for over 150 years.

The three museums; Colchester Castle, Hollytrees Museum and the Natural History Museum; highlight selected objects from the collection, which showcase the town’s key stories and unique character.

However, it’s impossible to display everything. A wealth of collections are also stored by the museums service. These objects include items from Colchester’s more recent history, archives, photographs and oral history- all awaiting discovery by the public. A new collections centre, ‘The Wonderhouse’, will provide the key to unlocking their potential.

Councillor Tim Young, Portfolio Holder for Licensing, Community Safety and Culture comments: “The Wonderhouse is an exciting project that will add to Colchester’s already rich heritage offer. It will be a real draw for residents and tourists alike.

Colchester is extremely lucky to have a wealth of internationally significant objects. The Wonderhouse will give people the opportunity to discover and appreciate them for the first time.

This project will also unveil a vital piece of the town’s previously hidden Roman Wall. It will create a launch pad to explore Colchester’s many historic sites. I’d invite residents and visitors to complete the survey and let us know their views on this project.

Find out more here>>

 

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Who will care? Swap Shop

who will care swap shopWho will care? Swap Shop

This ‘Who will care?’ summit is for community and voluntary organisations, health organisations and the public sector to debate the power of social action, exchange information and generate great ideas for health and wellbeing.  It takes place on 23rd March, 9:30am – 2:00pm, at the firstsite Gallery, Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester CO1 1JH.

Who will Care? is an independent commission led by Sir Tom Hughes-Hallett that sets out a number of high impact solutions to prevent future crisis in health and social care in Essex. It called for a new approach to supporting communities and people where the Community and Voluntary Sector plays a greater role and works collaboratively with the public sector.

This Swap Shop is intended to bring different sectors together to spark new ideas that can bring better quality solutions for citizens.

  • Hear about successful projects using social action and volunteering,
  • Consider a new culture of collaboration,
  • Question what needs to change for better outcomes,
  • Think about how community based initiatives can best be supported,
  • Discuss the key issues for Essex communities.

There is more information at www.essexpartnershipportal.org, book a place through [email protected].

Agenda

09.30 Registration, Coffee and Networking

10.00 Welcome and Who Will Care Update and Future Direction

10.10 Who Will Care Schemes Update

Two test and learn programmes will share their progress

  • ‘Maldon Sheds’ – Sarah Laskar, CEO Maldon CVS
  • ‘My Social Prescription’ Louise Willsher, Engagement Officer, Colchester CVS

10.25 Keynote Speaker: The Future of the Voluntary Sector

Kevin Curley CBE, Voluntary Sector Adviser

  • The growing hardship in our society which the local voluntary sector must respond to
  • The tension between delivering services and campaigning on behalf of those in need
  • Our responsibility to exploit new opportunities for raising the funds we need to be sustainable
  • The unchanging values which underlie all our work

10.50 Swap Shop – Session 1

Round table discussions hosted by leaders that bring new and different solutions to health and
social care by using social action and volunteering. Hear about how they do it, the challenges
encountered and the benefits it can bring the people involved.

11.35 Key issues for Essex – A discussion

11:45 Swap Shop – Session 2

12:30 Networking Lunch

13:00 North East Clinical Commissioning Group: Supporting Voluntary Action, Shane Gordon, Chief Officer, North East CCG

13:10 Keynote Speaker: People Powered Public Services

Daniel Farag, Senior Programme Manager, Nesta Daniel will explore how Social Action and people helping people can make a difference. He will consider the role citizens can play in powering public services, and how Social Action can change the nature of public services to achieve better outcomes. Referencing models of innovative practice from across the UK he will provide insight in to the benefits of working closer with our communities across a number of care settings.

13:30 An Interactive Summary – Ask the audience with Paul Hill, ACFO, Essex Fire & Rescue Service

13:50 Closing Remarks – Cllr Anne Brown

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NHS Care Consultation

nhs-care-consultCare Closer to Home and Urgent Care consultations:

The North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, with its partners, has started a 10 week consultation aimed at finding ways to provide effective and safe care within the community – known as Care Closer to Home.  Have your say on plans to provide health and social care closer to peoples’ home. Please read the NE Essex CCG’s consultation document. Local people across north east Essex are being asked for their views on how health and social care services could be provided closer to their homes in the future.

The consultation is also suggesting a redesign in the way emergency and urgent care might be provided too, as part of its urgent care strategy.  Their aim with both of these service redesigns is to ensure patients are at the centre of their care which will allow individuals to be seen in the right place, at the right time by the right expert.

These proposals follow a series of engagement activities, known as the Big Care Debate, in which many people called for services to be based around the individual needs of the patient as close to their home as possible.

Please give your views via an online survey.

If you prefer to download, print and post your response, please click the survey document here to download.

For further background, please see the CCG’s strategies published earlier this year:

Please come to one of the public meetings being held to hear a presentation and give your views, to book your place, please email [email protected] or call them on 01206 286500:

Colchester Tuesday 13 January 4pm-6pm United Reformed Church, Lion Walk Colchester CO1 1LX
Colchester Tuesday 13 January 7pm-9pm United Reformed Church, Lion Walk, Colchester  CO1 1LX
Harwich Wednesday 14 January 4pm-6pm Long Meadows Community Centre, Long Meadows, Dovercourt CO14 4US
Harwich Wednesday 14 January 7pm-9pm Long Meadows Community Centre, Long Meadows, Dovercourt CO14 4US
Walton Friday 16 January 4pm to 6pm Columbine Centre, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze CO14 8PZ
Clacton Friday 23 January 4pm-6pm Clacton Golf Club West Rd, Clacton CO15 1AJ
Clacton Friday 23 January 7pm-9pm Clacton Golf Club West Rd,ClactonCO151AJ
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As winter takes hold

Get ready for winterAs winter takes hold

Autumn is nearly over and winter taking it’s grip, it is, then, perhaps timely to think about the prospects for snow especially since some papers are already forecasting serious drops in temperature with increased prospects for snow, for example, on 3rd December the Daily Mail (online) was saying:

Get set for coldest day of the year: Arctic blast set to sweep across Britain by the weekend with temperatures plunging to -5C.

As ever our village Snow Patrol volunteers will be preparing for serious snowfalls, but all can do their part in helping clear paths & footways.   The Government publishes guidance about clearing snow outside your property, pathways to your property or public spaces, this guidance (see link below) says that there is no law stopping you from doing this.

The advice confirms that despite some media reports to the contrary, it is extremely unlikely that someone who has attempted to clear snow in a careful manner will be sued or held legally responsible if someone slips or falls on ice or snow at their property. People should not be deterred from performing a socially responsible act, such as clearing a path of snow, by the fear that someone may subsequently get injured slipping on the path.

Though the person clearing the snow does have responsibilities when doing the job, mainly to ensure that they are not making the area more dangerous, it is important to note that those walking on snow and ice have responsibilities themselves. A common sense approach is encouraged as is community involvement.

Useful links

As well as HMG’s guidance on snow clearance, the Met Office also runs a useful website on behalf of the government that hosts a wealth of useful information: