6:38pm Friday 3rd September 2010
IT is with great regret that I write to protest in the strongest of terms to the proposal by Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) to close 22 day care centres, including the Adult Day Care Centre and the British Red Cross centre in Princes Risborough.
They plan to open two main hubs – one in Aylesbury and one in High Wycombe – with two smaller satellites being commissioned in Burnham and Buckingham and with voluntary community bases being formed in village halls and retail shop units, the latter without any support. So BCC plans to reduce from the current 22 supported sites to just two main sites and two smaller satellites.
We all know that Bucks County Council, along with all other local authorities, is facing a huge reduction in financial support from central government and has to take some tough decisions.
However, with these proposals they are hitting the most vulnerable in our community. They are ignoring the major voluntary contribution given by local community support staff to the existing centres, they refuse to guarantee ring-fencing of any capital receipts they receive from the sale of these facilities towards adult care support, they do not appreciate the time it will take to transport our most vulnerable and needy citizens to and from the proposed new hubs and, most importantly, they are proposing much stricter criteria on who should be able to receive this critical support.
Within Princes Risborough we have raised a petition in protest against the proposal to close our Day Care Centre and Red Cross Centre which has received over 3,000 signatures in its support.
This was delivered by Cllr Carl Etholen, who is our County and Town Councillor, to Bucks County Council County Hall on September 1.
Carl has led the protest and, together with Peter Robinson, Chairman of the Day Care Centre trustees, they have worked tirelessly to arrange meetings of protest with BCC Cabinet Member Cllr Tricia Birchley, including a public meeting where over 200 people attended. The hostile questioning and chorus of protest at that meeting was led by Mr John Bercow MP, Speaker of The House of Commons, who spoke most eloquently against these absurd proposals.
It is always easy to criticise and not to have solutions.
However, in this instance I think that Cllr Birchley has completely misunderstood the needs of the most vulnerable in our community and I urge her thorough this letter to think again. We as Conservatives need to show our caring side.
WJ Bendyshe-Brown, Cllr for The Risboroughs, Skittle Green and Bledlow
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