Archive for category: News

When the Council met to consider the budget for 2007/2008, they had to allow for the possible cost of an election in May 2007. Since the costs will only be incurred if there is a poll, and the Returning Officer is currently unable to predict the exact cost, a provision for around half part of the likely cost has been included in the precept (Council Tax) and the balance will be taken from reserves. This approach has enabled the Council to keep the cost of the increase to less than 5%.

The precept for 2007/2008 will be £19,500 compared to £18,800 in the current year. Changes in the number of taxable properties in the parish also affect the cost to individual tax payers.

As the Parish Council element of Council Tax (which also includes Borough and County COuncils, Fire Service and Police) is typically around 2% of the total, this change is very minor in overall effect.

For a Band D Council Tax payer, the Parish Council rate for next year will equate to 7p a day.

If every household in East Staffordshire has areal Christmas tree this year, then approximately 46,000 will need to be disposed of!

They can be successfully recycled into wood chips and compost. You can help by taking your used tree to:

Strawberry Garden Centre
ramshall Road
Uttoxeter

or:

Byrkley Garden Centre
Brykley Drive
Burton upon Trent

between 2nd and 26th January.

Dear Mr Catling and Mr Marsh

Withdrawal of Drugs from Community First Responder Portfolio

Abbots Bromley Parish Council is greatly disturbed by the recent announcement of the withdrawal of a number of key drugs from the Community First Responder (CFR) portfolio. The Council seeks reassurance from you both, as the current and future controllers of policy and operations, that this dilution in the quality of service to our community will be swiftly overcome and the previous levels of capability will be re-instated and maintained.

Yours sincerely

Abbots Bromley is a rural parish that can be anything through 15mins up to half an hour between a ‘999’ call and the arrival of an ambulance. We were therefore immensely impressed by the CFR proposition. Supported by the Council, two of the Councillors worked with the community and the Staffordshire Ambulance Service (SAS), leading to the successful implementation of the Abbot Bromley CFR group in February 2005.

Since its inception the Abbots Bromley CFR group has provided 24/7 cover for virtually every day and has attended over 600 calls across a wide range of situations. It is now respected and implicitly relied on by our community.

The withdrawal of key drugs is self-evidently a major reduction in the quality of service and, we believe, an un-necessary one. In our understanding Responders are trained in drug administration to the same level as ambulance technicians by the same trainers. Therefore this cannot be an issue of training or competence.

We are deeply concerned by the apparent lack of swift, positive retrieval action to this issue. We understand that there seems to be more effort being spent in defending why the drugs were withdrawn than in developing solutions for their re-instatement. Given this situation we are most uneasy that this implies potential long term issues for the CFR group that supports our community.

Abbots Bromley Parish Council is therefore seeking re-assurance
1. from the current management (Staffordshire Ambulance Service) that the problem is being urgently and positively addressed
2. from the prospective management (West Midlands Ambulance Service) that the CFR support that is crucial to the response time and patient care in our rural community will be maintained at or above the original Staffordshire Ambulance Service levels and capabilities.

Yours sincerely

Following cable damage reported in an earlier news item, normal operation of the street lights in the High Street has now been restored following work by Central Networks and ABB to install new timers.

Any further problems with the street lights can be reported using the normal route which is to ring Clarence on 0800 23 23 23 and give details of the light location and reference number.

As a result of recent damage to cables during work in the main street, the timer control of the wall-mounted lights is no longer operating. Keeping the lights on continuously is the short term solution.

This type of control is now obsolete and instead of expensive repairs to an out-dated system, it is proposed to replace the damaged circuit with floor-mounted control units that can form the basis for the next generation of street lighting.

Adopting this approach will avoid an extensive loss of supply for the village while the old circuit was repaired and will help ensure that the money spent has long term benefits.

Work is in progress to specify and commission the work required but the lights will be on continuously until this is carried out.