Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

WATER

Last Friday, to a fanfare of damp trumpets, South West Water unveiled its business plan for the next five years – 2005 to 2010. It sets out what it will do to continue to clean up our beaches, tackle the problem of discoloured water, advance the delightful subject of sewage treatment and unpleasant odours and generally improve its service to customers. It is a fairly ambitious programme.

Most importantly, it tells us what we will have to pay for the privilege. This has all gone off to Ofwat – the independent regulator – and it will make the final decision.

The plan is to increase our water charges over the next five years by 6.2% each year excluding inflation. In other words over 6% per year over inflation. Average bills in 2010 would have risen to £467. In anybody’s book, a significant uplift in a relatively poor area.

To be fair, water price hikes have been reasonable in the past few years, but coming on top of two years walloping from council tax rises, I can see quite a reaction brewing. It remains open, of course, for all of us to switch to water meters – but ultimately the same level of expenditure has got to be met by the same number of people. I am growing more and more concerned about people on fixed incomes, especially pensioners, being able to meet these increases. Unlike other charges there are no rebates available.

We have known for some time that water bills in the south west are far greater per household than anywhere else in the country. The reasons are obvious: so many miles of beaches to clean up to be paid for by a relatively low population.

I am asked to make representations to Ofwat on their proposals. I will of course study them more carefully before I do so. I would also appreciate your views on all this. They can be read on: www.ofwat.gov.uk
I have in the past called for a cross-subsidy from other parts of the country to help reduce our water bills, but this has fallen on deaf ears. I have called for governments of both colours to help out. I am bashing my head against a brick wall.

So the big issue is do we want our water company to make the kind of investment in our water and sewage supplies that their strategic plan suggests? Their proposals are called “Striking the Right Balance.” Have they?

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 24, 2004

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

NHS DENTISTRY

It began as a dribble, then a trickle and has become a steady stream. I refer to the number of you who have contacted me about the lack of NHS dentists in this area, getting fewer, it seems, by the week.

I have raised it with ministers and with the Strategic Health Authority for Devon and Cornwall that has the oversight of all these matters.

As I opened Saturday’s post I received the definitive answer: there are now no dental practices in the Plymouth area taking on new adults for NHS treatment. This problem has been compounded by at least two local practices in these parts in the past few months closing the door to NHS patients and servicing fee-paying patients only. Naturally they make their insurance schemes available, where we all pay so much per month depending on the health of our gnashers!

There is a unit at Greenbank where patients who are in pain and are not registered with a dentist elsewhere can go for emergency treatment, and some practices (a tiny few) are still taking children on the NHS. In the summer of 2005, the government is changing the contractual arrangements with dentists that (we are told) will increase the supply of NHS dentistry. But here and now, and outside of this limited provision, the picture is bleak.

What are we to make of all this? Is this just part of the inevitable change that is exploding all around us and we simply have to grin and bear it? After all, some will argue, even NHS dentists have been charging for parts of their work – especially the materials used – for years, so paying a private dentist for work to be done is not much different.

The question is: should everyone who wants an NHS dentist have access to one?

There are some good reasons why such access is important. Some children would never be taken to a dentist’s if their parents had to pay anything and that surely stores up long term problems for the future. Older people who have lived all of their lives with the NHS system, and who often have the most needs, struggle to come to terms with the fee-paying world. Others would argue that we must have NHS cover across every spectrum of healthcare, including our teeth.
So what’s the answer: allow NHS dentistry to slip into history, or invest in a modern version?

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 10, 2004

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

THE POWER STATION

Like a weed that refuses to lie down and die, the power station proposal for Langage, Plympton has reared its ugly head again. This time the story is that Centrica (British Gas) have acquired some kind of option in the project.

It is now 6 years since this unwelcome intruder darkened our door and it has taken various twists and turns ever since. The one constant has been the determined opposition of thousands of local people who do not want a power station on their doorstep. Who in their right minds would site such a monstrosity so close to where 45,000 people live, overlooking the rolling majesty of the South Hams? The benefits would be just £10 a year off our electricity bills and, when complete, no more than 40 full time jobs. Talk of an energy park employing 2000 people created by businesses from all over the country upping sticks and relocating to Plympton for lower electricity bills is pie in the sky.

I do not know any local resident who wants this power station. Even worse - it has taken six years to get to this point, preventing this land being developed for other businesses that could have generated hundreds of jobs for local youngsters.

Why have the sharp suits behind this proposal struggled to get the financial backing to develop this fiery furnace before now, given that the government granted them the licence several years ago? Simple – wholesale electricity prices have fallen in recent years and the project is probably not financially viable given the millions needed to build it.
But British Gas would be getting two bites of the cherry, making a profit on the gas consumed by the power station and on the electricity sold by it. That may make the numbers stack up. So is it still possible for local people to influence the outcome of this?

An interesting idea emerged over the weekend. What if enough of us write to British Gas informing them that on the very day they confirm that they are going ahead with this development we will immediately switch our gas consumption to one of the several competitors waiting in the wings? There are about fifteen thousand households in the Plympton area, more than enough to send a shiver of doubt into the boardroom discussions on this marginal project.

Do I sniff the start of a new campaign? Maybe people power will triumph after all.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, May 04, 2004