Tag Archives: political

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Press release: No profit for waste couple

The operator and the landowner of an illegal waste site in an Essex village have been ordered to pay a total of £66,493

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard that 14,700 tonnes of inert waste was stored on land behind a residential address known as Gean Tree in Great Horkesley north of Colchester ‘grossly’ breaching a waste exemption and planning rules.

George Nicholas James Dench pleaded guilty to running the illegal site and failing to comply with an enforcement notice to remove the waste. He was ordered to pay a total of £32,895 in fines and costs by Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday (6 Mar).

Annette Ismay Williams, who owned the land pleaded guilty to allowing the illegal waste site to run and to failing to clear the land under an enforcement notice and has to pay a total of £33,598 fines and costs.

Mrs Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court the waste had been deposited there over 2.5 years.

Williams lives at the address with her partner and their son George Dench who sought out companies to dump the waste there. He was paid £64,704.

Mrs Tordoff said only certain relatively low risk activities can be covered by an exemption which sets out conditions that must be met at all times. These include not risking human health nor the environment, not causing a nuisance with noise or odours and not adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest.

The exemption registered by Williams allowed the use of certain types of inert waste in construction and the limit for waste soils and stones was 1,000 tonnes in any 3 years. That target was reached in the first month.

A further exemption allowed the treatment of up to 5,000 tonnes of waste in any 3 years, providing it was also used on the same site and only stored for a year.

Dench told investigating officers he had brought the soils to the site to repair the bank of a lake there. Williams said she just did the admin work. Both said they did not know how many tonnes the exemption allowed for.

Dench said he had not taken in the soils for financial gain as he was now bankrupt and he had not taken in any more since.

Mrs Tordoff told magistrates that Environment Agency officers had advised and written to the 2 saying the site needed to be cleared and operated properly.

Between September 2012 and March 2015 the Agency received 34 complaints about activities at the site.

After the hearing Environment Agency Enforcement Team Leader Lesley Robertson said:

We advised the defendants several times against accepting any more soils at the site but they continued to take it.

The site is in a village close to other homes and operations there affected people living nearby.

Councillor Simon Walsh, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste, said:

This case is an example to show landowners that risk taking is not acceptable, whether it is a risk that concerns human health or the environment.

Owning a piece of land means accepting a responsibility to the surrounding area and all that resides there, be it business, homes or wildlife.

Notes for Editors:

Breakdown of costs and fines:

Dench: EA offence – fined £14,353 plus £8,103 (a share of the full costs) ECC offence – fined £9,568 plus £750 costs

Williams: EA offence – fined £14,775 plus £8,103 (a share of the full costs) ECC offence – fined £9,850 plus £750 costs

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HM Government • • •

It’s time to right a wrong – message to WASPI Lobby – Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, delivering a message of support to people lobbying for Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), said:

My best wishes and International Women’s Day greetings to everyone supporting today’s WASPI lobby.

You are highlighting a grave injustice. The Coalition Government’s decision to move the goalposts, by bringing the equalisation of the state pension age forward by a further two years to 2018, was plain wrong.

It was a betrayal of tens of thousands of women who had planned for their retirement based on the 1995 legislation.

It was justified by claims Britain needed a dose of austerity – yet at the same time tax cuts worth billions have been given to big companies and the very wealthy.

Today, we can expect the Chancellor to boast that the economy is doing better than expected. But will he do anything to right this wrong? I very much doubt it.

Labour is already committed to extending Pension Credit to help those worst hit by this callous change.

We are also developing solutions for those affected who would not be entitled to Pension Credit. And we will continue to consult with WASPI and others on this as part of our planning for government.

I am sorry I cannot join you today. I will be in the Chamber of the House of Commons for the Budget statement, ready to respond.

My speech will challenge the Government’s policy of endless austerity for the many, alongside generous tax giveaways for their wealthy and privileged friends.

My thoughts are with you today. I congratulate you on your stand and look forward to working with you to achieve justice.

Best wishes

Jeremy Corbyn

Leader of the Labour Party

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Labour • • •

Children face longest ever wait for ear, nose and throat appointments

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8 Mar 2017

Miles Briggs Choice

Children in Scotland are waiting longer now for ear, nose and throat (ENT) appointments than ever before, new figures have shown.

The median wait for first specialist appointments for conditions like tonsillitis, nosebleeds and hearing problems was 71 days last year.

That’s the highest since records began in 1999, and compares to 66 days in 2015, and as little as 44 days in 2011.

In some health boards, under 16s wait far longer.

The longest median wait was in Grampian (133 days), followed by Ayrshire and Arran (131 days) and Shetland (120 days).

The best-performing board for ENT waits was Dumfries and Galloway, where youngsters waited on average for just 43 days.

The statistics emerged following a parliamentary question from Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Miles Briggs.

Across Scotland, more than 10,000 children are admitted to hospital for ENT problems each year, mostly on an elective basis.

Conditions which come under ENT range from mouth cancers and glandular fever, to issues with snoring and vertigo.

Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Miles Briggs said:

“Ear, nose and throat problems can range from the mildly irritating to the very severe.

“But that’s no excuse for the Scottish Government to preside over a system which is now recording the longest waits in two decades.

“Each year thousands of children are admitted with ENT problems, so it is not a minority area of care.

“When a child is referred for hospital treatment, it is unacceptable that – in some health board areas – it is almost five months before they are seen to.

“The trend is getting worse, and the SNP has to act.

“It’s in sole charge of the health service, and has no-one to blame for this slip in performance but itself.”

The full text of the parliamentary question from Miles Briggs is below:

7 March 2017 (Holding Reply Issued 1 March 2017)

Index Heading: Health and Social Care

Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Scottish Conservatives and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for (a) children and (b) adults to see an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

S5W-06782
Shona Robison:

The information requested is provided in the following tables. It should be noted that data prior to the introduction of New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times in 2008 is from Scottish Morbidity Records (SMR00) and are not directly comparable.

MEDIAN WAITS (DAYS) FOR A FIRST OUTPATIENT CONSULTATION IN ENT FOR PATIENTS UNDER 16 YEARS BY NHS BOARD FOR THE YEARS 1999 TO 2007

Board Median Waits (Days) : Patients Age Under 16 Years
  1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Ayrshire and Arran 30 25 45 43 46 49 70 76 47
Borders 85 107 121 59 45 84 90 84 92
Dumfries and Galloway 39 44 65 70 44 33 21 41 44
Fife 84 61 64 79 82 90 70 70 46
Forth Valley 57 49 58 70 75 63 77 82 45
Grampian 70 71 76 73 82 59 65 93 48
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 69 61 70 68 111 40 52 86 53
Highland 46 46 58 57 55 47 59 85 100
Lanarkshire 73 72 93 104 117 75 67 92 95
Lothian 16 18 18 30 40 54 50 28 87
Orkney 24 31 33 49 42 53 50 69 76
Shetland 36 41 41 58 71 62 47 68 63
Tayside 49 54 66 55 50 52 43 44 43
Western Isles 78 45 49 52 72 121 124 105 95
NHSScotland 53 52 63 63 68 50 56 68 58

Source : ISD SMR00

MEDIAN WAITS (DAYS) FOR A FIRST OUTPATIENT CONSULTATION IN ENT FOR PATIENTS 16 YEARS AND OVER BY NHS BOARD FOR THE YEARS 1999 TO 2007

Board Median Waits (Days): Patients Age 16 Years and Over
  1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Ayrshire and Arran 49 49 73 50 56 107 85 70 40
Borders 67 72 53 35 35 48 46 49 76
Dumfries  and Galloway 41 42 66 66 45 36 19 39 35
Fife 80 45 53 76 79 83 64 52 41
Forth Valley 54 49 54 62 63 68 73 62 42
Grampian 84 92 99 121 111 106 119 105 106
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 48 54 60 58 63 49 52 44 41
Highland 44 46 54 48 41 41 50 60 69
Lanarkshire 70 69 86 94 104 109 105 78 70
Lothian 69 63 61 65 55 57 63 66 84
Orkney 24 38 35 40 47 58 63 65 70
Shetland 40 40 42 47 52 62 36 46 60
Tayside 53 74 76 83 53 59 56 46 56
Western Isles 62 41 45 43 69 85 93 99 77
NHSScotland 56 56 63 66 64 61 62 56 53

Source : ISD SMR00

MEDIAN WAITS (DAYS) FOR A FIRST OUTPATIENT CONSULTATION IN ENT FOR PATIENTS UNDER 16 YEARS BY NHS BOARD FOR THE YEARS 2008 TO 2016

Board Median Waits (Days) : Patients Aged Under 16 Years
  2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Ayrshire and Arran 57 54 54 44 62 74 82 110 131
Borders 66 50 50 63 73 76 84 73 88
Dumfries and Galloway 38 42 44 21 38 44 40 40 43
Fife 42 40 44 36 37 42 41 42 47
Forth Valley 52 49 36 58 68 99 45 63 78
Grampian 66 55 72 81 74 63 60 108 133
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 45 48 53 40 42 50 55 60 69
Highland 81 61 52 56 62 80 87 118 88
Lanarkshire 48 24 44 76 80 77 75 70 81
Lothian 76 69 64 42 67 75 83 126 96
Orkney 59 57 44 41 30 54 57 67 51
Shetland 81 50 68 58 62 58 75 72 120
Tayside 36 37 52 49 46 50 56 60 68
Western Isles 77 45 57 59 49 85 66 39 63
NHSScotland 51 49 55 44 52 58 61 66 71

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

MEDIAN WAITS (DAYS) FOR A FIRST OUTPATIENT CONSULTATION IN ENT FOR PATIENTS 16 YEARS AND OVER BY NHS BOARD FOR THE YEARS 2008 TO 2016

Board Median Waits (Days) : Patients Aged 16 years And Over
  2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Ayrshire and Arran 53 47 56 65 78 73 82 78 57
Borders 53 38 36 43 55 61 74 62 46
Dumfries and Galloway 32 34 35 14 29 24 28 38 41
Fife 34 34 33 28 27 28 26 26 30
Forth Valley 51 42 31 44 58 83 40 55 66
Grampian 79 68 40 27 31 38 35 39 55
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 35 36 37 40 43 48 55 59 55
Highland 46 34 31 35 41 50 59 78 76
Lanarkshire 45 40 47 49 58 73 75 70 59
Lothian 48 45 54 35 51 70 49 52 42
Orkney 57 45 41 32 32 51 63 69 50
Shetland 71 44 60 54 58 45 74 62 84
Tayside 25 38 43 43 42 48 44 45 36
Western Isles 56 35 51 56 46 62 47 32 48
NHSScotland 43 41 41 37 43 49 49 51 49

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

In 2015/16, there were 10,052 admissions of under 18s in Scotland for ENT issues:
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Inpatient-and-Day-Case-Activity/

A list of ENT conditions are set out here:
http://patient.info/health/ear-nose-throat-mouth-1246

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Scottish Conservatives • •