We soon realised that Wiltshire Council (WC) were trying to palm us off with the need to run the pool locally as a Community Trust and now they suggest combining that trust to also run Westbury Leisure centre. It would be very difficult to make a pool pay its way and Westbury pool has no scope for a shop and café which could add an income stream. Bradford on Avon Pool was also suggested for a Community Trust and may be able to make some extra income streams. Grants may be difficult to obtain under the present economic climate too. WC boast that Community Trust status is working in Calne but my spies tell me that WC are still having to contribute oceans of money to keep it afloat so perhaps porkies are flying! If Community Trust is such a good idea why not make all Leisure Centres/Pools  Community Trusts and save huge amounts of cash on this non-statutory amenity; WC always stress that swimming pools are not a statutory requirement?

In the present climate you may be surprised to find that WC plan to spend even more on Leisure services yet seem unable to afford to keep Westbury and Bradford on Avon facilities afloat. We have just finished a consultation process on this topic where WC questionnaires were pitiful in their questions and difficult to obtain ;why not make sure all households get one of these forms?Do any of us believe in such ‘consultations? The findings of the ‘consultation were announced early in 2011 and sadly our initial fears were realised. Both Westbury and Bradford on Avon are expected to form community Trusts and effectively run the pools and leisure centres.

Although I was Chairman of the Save Westbury Pool group I have no wish to take part in a Community Trust arrangement and feel strongly that WC should use our Council Tax to fully fund such facilities rather than play ‘Russian Roulette’  with such a health-giving sport. It is said that WC want to build superpools which no doubt will have plumes and waves…not much about fitness more about entertainment. To cut the carbon-footprint we need pools close by not five to ten miles away. Obesity is too prevalent in West Wiltshire and swimming definitely helps to keep weight down.

Look at www.savewestburypool.org.uk to see the beauty of westbury pool and read the feelings of local people about their beloved pool.Sadly Community Trust ,if the only option for Westbury Pool, may spell the end for this health-giving gem with immense heritage

Bob Lee

It’s almost one year now since I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

My life has changed forever in the last year, in ways I could not have foreseen and would never have dreamed could happen to me.

I now have to have someone else to change my bed for me because I can no longer do it myself.

I have to get a taxi to the doctors surgery 10 minutes walk away because I can no longer walk there.

Last week I had to leave the shopping centre after 5 minutes because my head was hurting so badly.

I have a rail on the wall so I can shower.

I can’t open a can with my left hand anymore.

I have to swallow my dignity and discuss my bowel and bladder functions with a nurse.

If you’re thinking this is not a fun way to live you’d be right. It isn’t. I am slowly coming to terms with it but I still grieve for the life I no longer have. For the opportunities that I will no longer to able to take.

I wanted to learn the violin, to learn the tango and Irish dancing, to walk the Pennine Way and Offa’s Dyke.

None of these things are options for me anymore but I am slowly learning to accept it.

I am learning to adapt. I bought a tumble dryer because I can’t walk to the launderette anymore. My family bought me a small dishwasher because I can’t wash up by hand. I buy pre cut vegetable and ready grated cheese so I can still eat healthily and not waste precious energy. I buy ready meals for when I am too tired to cook.

I still struggle with getting taxis everywhere because I know that the bus would be so much cheaper but I just can’t use it.

These are all things that Disability Living Allowance – DLA- helps to afford. Without it I don’t know what I would do. But I am now faced with the prospect of losing it.

The coalition government in it’s infinite, non disabled wisdom has decided to do away with DLA and replace it with Personal Independence Payment – PIP. And they are re-drawing the eligibility criteria so less people will be able to claim.

Make no mistake, DLA is not easy to claim. The form is 48 pages long and took me weeks, with the help of a friend, to complete. The only way to deal with having a chronic condition is to try and pretend it’s not there. Claiming DLA strips away your dignity and forces you to confront every tiny thing that is wrong with you. It asks the same questions over and over, worded in a slightly different way, to try and trip you up. And it requires medical evidence from a professional. It is the most difficult benefit I have eve had to claim.

And despite MS being incurable and progressive, it was only awarded for 2 years.

So next year I will have to claim all over again. Except if the reforms go through it will be a different benefit. One that is designed to be given to as few people as possible. If I should end up having to use a wheelchair then I would have trouble claiming, despite that meaning my illness is worse. If I should end up being unable to live independently and go to a care home, the Mobility part of DLA would be taken away. I would end up completely reliant on friends and family to go anywhere or else be stuck in staring at the walls all day. Every day.

The government claims that DLA is unsustainable. Do they have any idea how insulting it is to people like me to be told that? Do they realise that just because they decide not to pay everyone those illnesses won’t just vanish?
DLA has the lowest fraud rate of all benefits simply because it is so hard to claim.

The government have also admitted they have not done any assessment to determine how these cuts will impact on disabled people. This means they have proposed a series of cuts without any idea of how they will affect the very people they are targeting. This is alarming as well as inherently unjust.

There is a miasma of fear that is very nearly palpable running through the disabled community. We are dependent on these benefits to lead any kind of ordinary life. Not a luxurious, jet set one, just an ordinary one.

The public consultation for DLA ends on Valentines Day. I beg you all to do what you can to prevent the reforms so me and people like me can continue to live a nearly normal life.

Sign the petition against the reforms.

Write a letter to your MP. You can use a template letter so it takes hardly any time at all to do.

Write to Maria Miller the non disabled minister for disabled people.

Help us to spread the word about the campaign. People need to know just how bad it could get. And it will be bad. If you read my previous post you’ll see Ali’s story of how she will take death if she is refused because she can’t face abject poverty and homelessness again. Her story is not the only one. I’ve seen many posts like that. People are so scared and so desperate that they think suicide is their only way. Many of them feel that secretly the government would prefer that because then it will no longer have to support them. Who can blame them when that is what is implied when told we are ‘unsustainable’?

Ask yourself this – what sort of world do you want to live in? One that treats it’s disabled and vulnerable as people or one that treats them as a burden?

And remember that most, including me, aren’t born disabled. One day it could be you.

To read more of Helen’s experiences and the effects of the cuts on disabled people in Britain go to ‘Rage against the Coalition’: http://politicsandthecuts.blogspot.com/

A piece specially written for West Wiltshire Green Party by Helen Thomas

I am a thirty four year old woman who has MS. I was diagnosed in January after being hospitalised because my symptoms were so bad I couldn’t cope any longer. I had to suspend my studies at university – in the hope that I would be able to return in September – and claim for Employment and Support Allowance. I also had to claim for Disability Living Allowance.

Anyone who has ever claimed these benefits will know how hard it is.

For ESA I had to go through a 45 minute phone call to a call centre, at the end of which I was stressed, humiliated and exhausted. And that was only the beginning.

I was then told that I wasn’t entitled to it because I was still a student. I had a letter from the university which stated that I was no longer considered a student, that I wasn’t entitled to use their facilities and I was no longer exempt from Council tax.

This wasn’t good enough. So in effect, for one government branch I was a student, for another I was not. How do they figure that one? And why are they allowed to get away with it?

I appealed against the decision. They upheld their original one. I appealed again. By this time it was April.

Then I had another relapse. A bad one. So bad that I could barely get out of bed. I didn’t want to eat, I couldn’t bear noise or light, I couldn’t even talk on the phone. When I did get up I had to go back to bed a few hours later. If I made it past 7 pm that was a victory. My head felt like it was being constantly assaulted and I was in so much pain I spent all day in tears. I wondered every day how much more of it I could take.

And I couldn’t even cope with opening the post.

So I missed the medical assessment I was supposed to attend.

Two months later when I had recovered enough to open the post, I rang the Jobcentre and told them what had happened, and asked what I could do. The woman I spoke to was very unhelpful and said I should write a letter and tell them what was wrong with me so it could go on the file for the next time I claimed. And she had the audacity to assume I was suffering from stress or anxiety.

By this time I had had to drop out of uni completely as I couldn’t tell them if I would be well enough to return in September. (As it turned out I wasn’t)

And I faced the whole battle of applying for benefit all over again.

This time they were satisfied that I was no longer a student and processed my claim, dependent on passing the medical assessment. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one of these but they are awful experiences.

Even if you can barely walk and never leave the house you still have to go. I had to take my son with me to lean on as support.

The doctors don’t know much about MS and I couldn’t show them because it’s an invisible disease. There are no scars, plaster casts or broken bones to show them.

So I was shaking with fear from the moment I got the appointment till the day the result came through. Why? Because someone who knows nothing about me or the disease was about to decide whether I was fit enough to return to work. I knew I wasn’t, my neurologist knew I wasn’t and so did my nurse, my GP, my physiotherapist and my occupational therapist. But their opinions mean nothing to the Jobcentre. After all, what do they know? They are only specially trained medical professionals.

I was lucky, I passed and was finally awarded ESA in May. It had only taken 5 months. I was placed in the ‘potential to work’ category which had me shaking with fear again. Was I going to be forced into jobhunting before I had recovered?

Again I was lucky, my advisor at the Jobcentre knows what the situation and assured me I wouldn’t be forced into anything before I was ready.

I still can’t help worrying though.

As for DLA, what a minefield. The form is 48 pages long. It took months to fill in. Or rather, it took my friend months to fill in since I couldn’t hold a pen. It’s invasive, humiliating, exhausting and emotionally draining. How would you like to specify every single thing that’s wrong with you, from your walking ability to your bodily functions? The only thing they don’t ask is what your shoe size is.

I half expect that next time I have to claim. Because yes, despite the fact that my condition is progressive, the DLA, once finally awarded, lasts only for 2 years. Then I will have to do it all over again.

But at least it was all over.

Except it’s not over. I now live in fear of it all being taken away. Because our ‘coalition’ government – and I say that in quote marks because it’s less a coalition than a takeover of the Lib Dems by the Tories – have decided to cut the welfare bill by focusing on ESA.

There are too many cheats out there they say.

Despite the figures which go against this, and despite all the evidence that these benefits are so hard to claim that there can be very few people who slip through the net, the Government are determined to punish me and others like me.

They announced a new medical test would be necessary to claim DLA. As if it weren’t already hard enough. The sheer stress of it is enough to put many genuine claimants off. I would have been one of them if I hadn’t had a friend who’d been through the process with her ex husband and was able to help me with it.

People with MS, along with those suffering mental illnesses, will be among those groups who suffer most. Simply because you can’t see what is wrong with us. And if you can’t see it, it isn’t there right?

I now live with the fear that I will end up with my benefits cut and nothing to live on because the Government is insistent on punishing those who are most vulnerable. And then what will I do? If I push myself too hard I make my condition worse. Can you say rock and hard place?

I want everyone to be aware of this, because disabled people are forever overlooked. Their issues are somehow never as important. And the Government continues to punish us. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. They have to make cuts yes, but not by penalising some of society’s most vulnerable people.

To support or find more about Helen’s Charity (supporting research into Multiple Sclerosis) please visit:

http://www.helenscharityauctions.org/

Dear Samantha,
I am delighted to be able to inform you that the Green Party won the St. Laurence School Mock Elections! The original poll in March showed the Green Party to have 6% of the vote, on the 4th May we had 12% and two days later in the actual election we took 45% of the vote! We would have a clear majority due to our planned Coalition of the Left with Labour, with whom our views coincide on many issues, but more importantly with whom we share an ideology of equality. I think it just took awareness of what the Green Party stands for to swing the vote, to this end we planted a pear and apple tree at school as part of the campaigning and emphasized the idea that the Green Party stands not only for environmental change but also for societal change because the two are entirely inseparable. I’m guessing that many people across the country will now see that the Liberal Democrats cannot deliver a fair society when they will all too easily side with a party of elitist and reactionary aims and devices, and that therefore the Green Party can come to be identified with real change for equality. This, coupled with a maintaining of pressure for parliamentary reform, should mean that the Green Party will majorly improve her position when the current coalition collapses, especially

Together, little by little, we will make it…

(Just don’ make me use composting loos)

by Cindy Burke

The Fletchers are going to be Green MPs

They’re going to save the earth.

In the past we’ve sold out the planet

Now we’ll show it what it’s worth,

What! You’ve got central heating?

Put a cardi on if you’re cold.

I’ve made something nice from leftover food

Just scrape off all the mould.

We’ll put a log on the open fire;

We wouldn’t dream of using coal.

If we did, we’d be booking our summer hols

In a villa at the North pole.

With our car there are some carbon emissions

We’ve got to give something back,

So we’re boosting our eco-credentials

And getting a pony and trap.

As a family, we’ve harnessed our wind power

The dog provides it come wind, rain or snow;

We’ve been so super-efficient

We can now power a small radio.

Mark, as an MP they’ll be MP’s expenses

To use to enrich your life;

Just don’t spend it all on low-wattage bulbs

And wigwams for your wife.

Guys, I hope you know we’re just kidding.
We wish you good luck and lots more.

Just don’t make us use composting loos

Though when in power you’ll say ‘It’s the law!’

]]> http://wiltshiregreenparty.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=522 0 http://wiltshiregreenparty.co.uk/?p=514 http://wiltshiregreenparty.co.uk/?p=514#comments Sun, 09 May 2010 21:27:15 +0000 markfletcher http://wiltshiregreenparty.co.uk/?p=514 Electoral reform and coalition negotiations

08 MAY 2010

“These are uncharted waters for all politicians. But this only makes it more important that Nick Clegg makes his decisions based on the clear steer given to him by voters.

“In this election, the British people have brought in a House of Commons in which a majority of MPs are from parties which support reform. A clear majority of people in the United Kingdom voted for reform of our political system.

“Therefore, any arrangement between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives must include genuine and comprehensive reform of the political system.

“A commission, inquiry, or any other delaying tactic will not be acceptable. There should be a referendum before the end of the year which includes options for a genuinely proportional system, not the self-serving system of AV, which is even less proportional. The people should be asked what voting system they would prefer. That is proper democracy.

“The first-past-the-post system has created a situation where people cannot vote positively for the candidate, or party, whose policies they most agree with. Instead, they are forced to vote in fear, working out how to vote to keep out the party furthest away from them in policy and values. This leaves us a grotesque democratic deficit and a poor basis on which to govern.

“The Liberal Democrats must not be seduced by the trappings of power. The people have voted for reform: Nick Clegg must not betray them.”

Caroline Lucas, leader, Green Party

The election of the first ever Green to Parliament represents a truly historic moment. Hundreds of thousands of Green voters across the country now have, for the first time, a voice in Parliament, and genuinely progressive views on issues such as the economy, health, and the environment will now be heard.

After the result was declared, Caroline Lucas said:  “This victory is no accident: it is the result of the hard work and commitment of thousands of Green Party members and supporters not only in Brighton but from right across the country over the past months and years. It is their work and support that has helped deliver this win, and the victory is as much theirs as it is mine.

“Green principles and policies will now have a voice in Parliament. Policies such as responding to climate change with a million new ‘green’ jobs in low-carbon industries, fair pensions and care for older people, and stronger regulation of the banks will be heard in the House of Commons.”

Wiltshire’s Green Vote

Here in Wiltshire, the electoral map turned blue everywhere except Chippenham – congratulations to Lib Dem Duncan Hames who has a great track record on campaigning for the environment. We wish him a long and successful parliamentary career fighting against climate change.

However, we were delighted that Green voters had a voice in four of the five Wiltshire seats.

The results were:

Mark Fletcher in Devizes: 813 (1.75%)

Phil Chamberlain in Wiltshire North: 599 (1.23%)

Samantha Fletcher in Chippenham: 446 (0.85%)

Nicholas Startin in Salisbury: 506 (1.04%)

Swindon North Bill Hughes : 487 (0.97%)

Swindon South Jenni Miles: 619 (1.31%)

Thank you to everyone who voted Green, and who supported us not only financially but with your time, creativity and ideas. You’ve given us a great platform to build on in Wiltshire and we will continue to work on your behalf for a strong political force which will make a genuine difference to climate change.