West Lancs

New Year – Same old local issues

Nothing particularly new for 2006, the main issues have been on and off the agenda for the past couple of years:

  • uncertainty over west lancs as a viable authority in it’s own right
  • the structure of the local health provision
  • Skelmersdale town centre investment

Things are coming to a head in the near future, and I expect that we’ll know what’s happening over the next six months.

The expected white paper on local government reorganisation is likely to be published in the next six months. We are told that it will be published in the summer, but there is talk that it will come sooner. It seems that everyone I speak to has a different idea of what will happen, but there seems to be consensus that Districts are too small to be viable.

By October the changes to the local PCT’s will be known and will already be being implemented. There is also the review of liverpool health trusts which also has the Southport and Ormskirk hospital trust in it’s sights. Hopefully, neither set of changes will hit us too hard in West Lancashire, both being changes at the management level. A new PCT merged with South Ribble, Chorley and Preston keeps the local identity without being lost to a massive single Lancashire authority. With the Liverpool health trusts, the main problem with the Ormskirk and Southport hospitals is that they find it difficult to find clinical staff who want to work out here. Also, as technology improves there is more remote diagnosis where the specialists don’t have to be in the same hospital as the patient – patients have to travel less and specialists get to do more consultations.

Following the consultations over the Skelmersdale vision for the town centre, the council and other partners are applying for money to invest and try to turn it into a reality. These applications have been sent in, but even if we get the money, it will be a while before work starts. Investment to improve the town centre is something that will have to continue for years – an established town centre needs to grow and can’t just be dropped onto the site of an older, failing, town centre.