Update of Residents' Association activities since March Annual General Meeting
ELMBRIDGE COUNCIL ELECTIONS - 4 MAY 2006
Thames Ditton Ward
DAVID LOWE (R.A.) 1228 Elected
Graham West (Conservative) 393
Roger Hughes (Labour) 92
This result shows that in Thames
Ditton the non-party policies of our
Association and the qualities of our
candidate have the strong support of the
local electorate. Our thanks go to all the
tireless workers who made this success
possible - the manifesto deliverers, the
tellers, those who put up posters and last,
but not least, our agent Peter Hickman.
In the rest of the borough, however,
Residents' candidates were not so
successful and the Council is now made
up as follows:
Residents and Independents 26
Conservatives 26
Liberal Democrats 8
At the Annual Meeting of the Council
the Conservatives took power following
the abstention by Liberal Democrats who
did not wish to join Residents' councillors
in a joint administration.
Campaign to save Thames Ditton Hospital
We are supporting the Friends of
Thames Ditton Hospital in their
continuing campaign to prevent the East
Elmbridge & Mid Surrey Primary Care
Trust from closing all 14 beds in the
George Tickler Wing at Emberbrook.
On 28th March supporters of Thames
Ditton Hospital led by Chairman Karen
Randolph and Elmbridge Councillors
Ruth Lyon, Tannia Shipley and Peter
Heaney joined the national rally outside
the Houses of Parliament together with
1000 other campaigners from 39 hospitals
across England. The rally, organised by
the campaign group CHANT (Community
Hospitals Acting Nationally Together)
was to protest against closures and
cutbacks to community hospitals
throughout the country. Campaigners
from Cobham, Molesey, Walton,
Weybridge and Surbiton hospitals also
joined the rally and handed in petitions to
local MPs Ian Taylor, Philip Hammond
and Edward Davey.
Following the rally, a new world record
of 45 petitions on one day were submitted
to the House of Commons in recognition
of the vital role played by community
hospitals in providing local community
based care and in protest at the continued
threat of closures and cuts to services.
The Government’s White Paper “Your
Health, Your Care, Your Say” published
in January proposed a new generation of
hospitals to provide a wider range of
health and social care services in a
community setting. It stressed the
potential of releasing acute hospital beds
by using intermediate care beds eg for hip
fractures and recognised that the
provision of more local care helps with
transport problems.
Our M.P. Ian Taylor (Con) has written to the
Chief Executive of the PCT pointing out
the widespread support for local
community hospitals providing care for
local people and asking him to consider
how the PCT will meet these needs in
view of the proposals contained in the
White Paper.
Railings and Wheelbarrows
We were delighted to see the new
railings on the ramps at Thames Ditton
station.
Ron Cox, the Thames Ditton
station master received six old
wheelbarrows from residents after our
appeal in the December issue of Thames
Ditton Today. They are now planted out
and will beautify the station this summer,
reaching their peak in time for the
Hampton Court Flower Show.