Month: October 2023
No wonder Boris Johnson hid when he came to Seaton
Seaton’s population is almost 45 per cent over the age of 65 – which is one of the reasons we need our hospital. But according to Boris Johnson, that means we should have been left to die from Covid. No wonder he hid at at the furthest end of Seaton beach when he popped in during the 2019 election!
Hospital campaign begins with meeting of 40 in Beer
An excellent start to the campaign as forty people from Beer and Branscombe turned up to show their concern about the threat to the hospital. The meeting called by Cllr John Heath heard from Richard Foord MP, Paul Arnott, Jack Rowland and myself. We were all determined to block any sell-off, closure or demolition of any part of the building.
BE A BRICK
You’ll see that this site has been renamed and my portrait has been replaced by a brick with the above words on it.
This photo shows the small commemorative brick given to each of the thousands who donated to the building of Seaton Hospital 30 years ago. The other side of the brick says HELP SEATON & DISTRICT HOSPITAL.
It needs your help again – BE A BRICK, come to the meeting on Friday, and support the campaign in the coming weeks.
Our community paid for ALL the bricks in the wing they want to sell off – don’t let them get away with it!
Breaking: Richard Foord secures Adjournment Debate on Seaton Hospital
From East Devon Watch:
Richard Foord has secured an Adjournment Debate early in the new parliament. These last half an hour and provide an opportunity for an individual backbench MP to raise an issue and receive a response from the relevant Minister. Monday, 13 November 2023: Upcoming business http://www.theyworkforyou.com Commons: Main Chamber Debate on the Address Seaton Community Hospital…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2023/10/27/breaking-richard-foord-secures-adjournment-debate-on-seaton-hospital/
Seaton Heights fire shows we were right to save Colyton fire station
I was caught up in the traffic dislocation on Seaton Down Hill – I had to go back via Seaton to pick up my brother from Axminster station (although I arrived late, the train was later still, as usual).
Now I realise how serious the blaze was I’m just thinking how fortunate it was that we still had the Colyton fire crew as well as Seaton’s. There’s no substitute for truly local facilities and trained personnel, and we must fight for them.
A fire has broken out at the derelict Seaton Heights site. Fire crews from across the South West have been sent to the scene on Monday following the …
Massive fire breaks out at derelict holiday camp
The Seaton area community has given £5.25 million to Seaton Hospital – give it back to us
In 2016, I added up the contributions that the local community had made to the hospital. It came to over £2.8 million in constant prices, which represented over £4 million at 2016 prices. I have now used the Bank of England’s inflation calculator to produced an updated estimate. The local donations amount to £5,251,830 at September 2023 prices – and that’s not counting donations since 2016.
A hospital built with over 50 per cent local contributions should never have been handed to a company like NHS Property Services which charges the NHS extortionate rents. Morally it belongs to the local community.
If the NHS can’t use a whole wing of the hospital – a wing that was built 100 per cent by local donations – NHSPS should give it back to us, free of charge.
NO public consultation on the partial closure of Seaton Hospital
The Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) have said that the ‘stakeholder engagement process’, on the proposal to hand back a wing of Seaton Hospital to NHS Property Services (potentially leading to its demolition) will NOT include a public consultation – although the wing was WHOLLY paid for by public donations, making the Seaton area community THE most important stakeholder.
Only this week the ICB released, at my request, its report on the proposal, which boasted about the original consultation process for the hospital beds closure in 2016. Presumably they’ve realised, as I reminded them in my letter this week, that the consultation showed people DIDN’T want the closure.
So – fearing the Seaton public would once again say no, they’ve simply cut us out altogether this time!
The entire cost of the ‘redundant’ hospital wing was raised by the Seaton public
I’ve gone back to Mary Wood’s splendid booklet on the history of Seaton Hospital (1991). While the original hospital opened in 1988 was paid for £1 to £1 by the League of Friends’ fundraising and the NHS, the ‘whole cost’ of the wing which the ICB now wants to declare redundant – potentially to demolish – was met by the League. The NHS only had to pay the running costs when it opened in 1990.
This makes it all the more outrageous that Seaton Hospital was placed in the ownership of NHS Property Services in 2016, and they could now bulldoze it. Morally the hospital, especially this wing, belongs to the community in Seaton, Colyton, Colyford, Beer, Axmouth and surrounding villages who raised the money to build it in the first place. The ICB, having shamefully failed to make proper use of it, should now hand it back free of charge.
Thanks to Ted Gosling, curator of Seaton Museum and the town’s only Freeman, who gave me this booklet back in 2017.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 