Mary Reid

The Surrey Comet has done it again! A perfectly accurate front page report has been ruined by the sensational and totally inaccurate headline: 'Charity centre to shut'.

The last time this happened - only three weeks ago - two unrelated stories were combined under a 'Council wields axe' headline. The reality was that six elderly people were being moved from sub-standard accommodation, and that a local charity was closing down in spite of the support it was getting from the Council.

This time the story is about Springboard. I've written about this several times already (here and here and here) and you will know that Springboard is a NHS sheltered workshop for people with mental health problems or learning difficulties. 

Springboard is not a charity, and the story only makes sense when you know that the local Primary Care Trust - the commissioning arm of the NHS - is trying to close it down.

The Council's Health Overview Panel (which I'm on) forced Kingston Primary Care Trust, which funds Springboard, to consult on its proposal to close the workshop. At that stage we had no information about how the needs would be met of the 50 or so people who used the service. There was no assessment of their needs, so there was no way of analysing what the costs would be for alternative provision.

Last week Health Overview held a special meeting to hear fom the PCT about the consultation.

I was very critical of the consultation document, especially around the lack of costings, but also because it did not use Plain English, which in itself is a serious equalities matter.  Astonishingly it emerged that the needs assessments had still not been completed. 

The good news is that, under the leadership of our MP, Edward Davey, a rescue bid has been set up by a group of local charities. This is correctly reported by Peter Truman in the Comet.

So who was the sub-editor who wrote the headline 'Charity centre to shut'? A better headline would have been 'Charity centre to open'.

I haven't written anything about the disaster in Burma - what can I possibly say that isn't trite?

But the report in The Observer today was headlined Burma exports rice as cyclone victims starve.

Yes, this takes callousness and obscene power to even greater depths. Burma is exporting rice to Bangladesh from one port, whilst millions are on the edge of starvation in one of the main rice growing areas within Burma, where crops have been destroyed. Rice exports are controlled entirely by the military regime.

Skilled relief workers must sit in hotels in Thailand waiting for visas, and only a handful of planes carrying emergency supplies are allowed in, with little evidence that the supplies are reaching the survivors.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre effort to fool the rest of the world that the generals have everything under control, they have gone ahead with the planned referendum on a change in the constitution that would give even greater powers to the military.

In God's name, what can we do?

Well, we've certainly seen variety in the productions at the Rose! - from a naked Romeo, through the exuberance of The Ragged Child to a sparkling Peter Hall production of Uncle Vanya.

This Saturday there's a spectacular aerial dance show from the amazing Ockham's Razor. I remember catching a glimpse of them on TV some time ago and thinking that I must try to see them live - and here they are in Kingston!

Next week, it's another shift, this time into high comedy with Come on Jeeves, based on those wonderfully camp stories by P G Wodehouse.

Incidently, it's worth going into the theatre to book seats in person. As well as avoiding booking fees, at the moment they are giving away 20% vouchers for Frère Jacques (the French restaurant by Kingston Bridge) with the tickets.

Annual Council is the occasion when a new Mayor is installed, and yesterday we welcomed Cllr David Berry to the office.

The new Mayor is a Liberal Democrat councillor in Alexandra Ward. As we heard, David was involved in computers before some of of the councillors (but sadly not me) were born!

David will be supported by Cllr Rohan Yoganathan as Deputy Mayor, clearly hoping to establish a family dynasty to rival the Reids!

This is a sad day for those of us who value small shopping parades, centred around a post office, and their place within local communities.

The Post Office has announced that, in spite of energetic and informed opposition by all parties, it will close all six post offices in the borough that were under threat.

In fact, 155 post offices will close across London. Only seven of those on the original list were reprieved.

A few weeks ago we had a debate in Council on the threatened closures. I mentioned:

Cllr Steve Mama claimed that he had a hotline to the Government and that we could expect some concessions.

Hmm ... didn't work, then.

(In case you don't know, Steve Mama is the only Labour councillor on Kingston Council.)