South Devon Link Road

Today Devon County Council has appointed Galliford Try as the contractor to build the new Kingskerswell Bypass. Only last week the Government announced  the Link Road had been awarded full approval.

The Department for Transport will provide funding of up to £76.30million. Devon County Council and Torbay Council have committed £33 million from their budgets towards the scheme costs and Teignbridge District Council will contribute a further £500,000.

This long awaited bypass represents a real opportunity to improve transport links to the Bay and will especially benefit those in Paignton and Brixham who spend the longest in traffic. Businesses in the Bay and beyond will welcome this investment which could create 8,000 jobs across South Devon. Congratulations to all those who have worked so hard to make it happen.

Independent research indicates that every £1 invested into the construction of the bypass will produce a £9 stimulus to the South Devon economy, bringing the region's economy back into line with more prosperous areas.

 

One Man Against the Odds

Written by Oli Masters

People say that being a woman in a man's world is difficult, but has anyone stopped and thought about how difficult it is to be a man in a woman's world?

I am a student at South Devon College studying Childcare and Education. People have told me I would be better at mechanics or joining the Forces but in my mind childcare is the career that I want to do for the rest of my working life. I love working with children; they bring a certain joy to my life that no other profession can offer to me. There is nothing that would change my mind as when I walk into my placement I cannot help but smile. The children there make me feel like I am wanted and needed. They instil a sense of pride and responsibility in me that is un-rivalled throughout my life.

Out of a class of thirty, I am the only male and sometimes I feel quite outnumbered especially when I am looking for someone to talk to about the Formula One. I do not feel any less like a man because of the course I am on. This course is an opportunity for me to prove to people that men can be good at working in childcare settings and I am determined to break the bad stereotype of men around children.

My interest in working with children was first apparent at aged six when my dad's new partner started to come to my house with her little daughter. I used to play with her and entertain her with any of the games I could remember from when I used to play them. I used to love making up new games and stories for her, her smile was something that I looked forward to seeing when I visited my dad at weekends. When people saw me with her they used to tell me that I had a gift with children and I could soothe her easily when she was upset.

Because of my extensive family I was always around younger children, I cannot remember a time where I was not a role model for the rest of the children. In a sense I was a carer of these children and I went to 'parents evenings' with them when my family could not and cooked when my parents were at work. I also love to see these children from when they are very small and holding my finger with their whole hand to when they first learn to say my name. Seeing them flourish under my own and my parents' care is a feeling that keeps me determined to do the best I can for these children.

There needs to be more male role models in childcare especially now that there is a fear of grooming and this is something that with the right education and careful safeguarding policies we can prevent. Some children can go all week without ever seeing or talking to an adult male role model and so I wish to have more of these role models in settings so that it does not become something out of the ordinary to speak to men.

I wish to be a nursery practitioner but I also wish to educate carers and children alike about the benefits of working with children and the impact we all can have on the lives of those we care for. 


Broadband: Keep up to Speed

We are nearly on target for 10,000 to sign up for broadband. This will be vital to attract the investment needed. Please check your speed and register by clicking on the image and help us to get Devon up to speed. I am encouraging local residents and businesses to respond to a Devon County Council survey on super-fast broadband. The 'Keep Up To Speed' campaign is looking for 10,000 people to tell the DCC what they need from broadband provision.

The scheme was launched on Monday 6th February with a direct mail campaign across the area and will be followed by a phone survey. Though there has been considerable public investment, DCC are seeking to show that the demand is there for private investors to get involved.

Fast broadband shouldn't be a luxury available only to those in the cities. The Internet is an integral part of life and work. Without it, businesses can suffer; businesses like 'Green Ink', a flourishing international communications company in Buckfastleigh are hampered by slow service. With super-fast broadband, we can encourage other innovative ideas and bring people closer together. This is why it's important that people let Devon County Council know how vital broadband is to them.

 

Searaser

Congratulations to Alvin Smith from Dartmouth; his invention 'Searaser' has finally received the recognition it deserves. I first met Alvin before the election and was hugely impressed by his design for a marine renewable energy device which produces electricity via Hydro powered Pelton Turbines. Searaser in its complete form provides stored energy in the form of sea water pumped to a reservoir, stored for release on demand.

Searaser have recently signed up with Ecotricity, a British Utility hoping to make the product ready for market in 2014 but to test a 670mm diameter piston 12 metre stroke (½ full) size commercial Searaser by the end of 2012. This will be at the new "FabTest" nursery site in the newly announced South West Marine Energy Park off Falmouth, testing for sustainability in the harsh marine environment.

The new South West Marine Energy Park, announced by the Minster of State for Energy and Climate Change; Gregory Barker MP on Monday 23rd January will be the first of its kind in the UK. It is great news for the South West, where we have a wealth of marine energy expertise and experience across the region. Marine businesses, industry, Local Enterprise Partnerships, Councils and Universities will work together along with Cornwall Wave Hub to speed up the UK's progress in marine power so that we can become world leaders.

Britain has one the best energy resources in the world ready to be harnessed and hopefully the Government's investment in the South West will lead to greater investment and innovation not just for the South West but for the whole of the UK in the energy supply market. But none of this could happen without the creativity and determination of inventors like Alvin Smith.

 

Ending violence against women

It was a pleasure to speak as a patron at the launch of Devon Rape Crisis. At long last Devon has a support service for women who have been affected by sexual violence. This has been made possible by 3 years of funding from the Ministry of Justice and upholds a manifesto commitment to take action to improve support services and cut violence against women and girls. The service is entirely confidential, can be by phone or face to face and will cover the whole of Devon.

If you have been affected, please call on 01392 204174 or visit the website at www.devonrapecrisis.org.uk 


 


Youtube

Click here to see me being interviewed by Women2Win

 

Click  to listen to BBC Radio 4 Today programme interviewing Sarah and discussing "Do Westminster Primaries Work?"

 

 

 


Latest DiaryMap posts
12 MAY 2012

Ten Tors and Jubilee Challenge

Congratulations to all the schools, colleges, scouts and cadets who took part in this year' Ten Tors and Jubilee Challenge across Dartmoor. I have witnessed the blisters, the sunstroke, the soaked kit and struggled to lift the packs that the teams carry across the moor over 2 gruelling days. My...


11 MAY 2012

Community Hospitals Association Annual Conference, Leicester

I attended the CHA annual conference to speak about the importance of community hospitals and the vital role they play not only in rural areas like the South Hams but also in Torbay. We all know how much communities value the opportunity to be treated closer to home and the role that these community...


08 MAY 2012

Kilns at Brixham

These kilns are part of Brixham's industrial heritage and are unique in the South West, because they are built at right angles; most twin kilns were built side by side. Unfortunately proposed plans to widen the road have put the future of these kilns under threat.



Latest News, Sarah's Speeches and Debates in Parliament
26 APR 2012

EU Working Time Directive (NHS)

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative) I congratulate my hon. Friend Charlotte Leslie on securing this important debate. Why it matters so much is summed up well by Sir John Temple, in his report, "Time for Training": "Training is patient safety for the next 30 years", and that is absolutely...


25 APR 2012

Local Newspapers

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative) My hon. Friend is being most generous. As everyone knows, she is prolific and effective in her use of new media. It is wonderful to see that she also supports traditional media, too; papers such as South Hams Gazette in my constituency, which does a...


24 APR 2012

National Planning Policy Framework

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative) I congratulate the Minister on an excellent consultation, which showed all Departments how it should be done. Localism really matters to our constituents, and nowhere more so than in Totnes. Their only regret is that it has come late, and they would like...


17 APR 2012

Surrogate Parents (Leave, Pay and Allowance Arrangements):

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative) I welcome the significant improvements that have been made in respect of domestic violence, so I shall concentrate on Lords amendment 168. The Secretary of State says that because welfare appeals often involve arguments about points of fact rather than...


27 MAR 2012

National Planning Policy Framework

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative) Click here to watch Sarah live Residents in Churston are desperately trying to protect one of Torbay's last and most beautiful green spaces. It is home to the rare and lovely cirl bunting. Will sustainable development sustain the lovely cirl bunting? Greg...



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Sarah's Personal Blog

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Doctors should reject the BMAs call to strike

The British Medical Association is trying to persuade doctors to vote in favour of strike action. In doing so the BMA has shown how out of touch it has become with the interests of patients and doctors alike.

When I first joined the BMA after qualifying in 1986, I was unaware that it was a union. I had assumed that it was a professional organisation supporting standards and education. Like most doctors I joined for the weekly British Medical Journal, which at that time was the only way to find out what jobs were available.

This week in a 'Pension Ballot Special', BMA news tells members that they had no choice but to ballot on industrial action for a 'fairer' approach. It splashes on the 14.5% that only the highest paid doctors will have to contribute towards their pensions and tries to sell the line that no patients would be harmed by industrial action.

It tries to persuade GPs that they could open for their usual hours during industrial action but not carry out any pre-booked or routine appointments or issue any repeat prescriptions. Likewise hospital colleagues are invited to turn up and make decisions about what is or is not an emergency.

The results would not only be farcical but also frankly dangerous and doctors would of course find themselves catching up with an exasperated and irritated public over the following days... Except of course if that feels unreasonable, in which case the BMA industrial relations officer will be on hand to give guidance. He or she can expect to be very busy.

The public is unlikely to have much sympathy.

In the 1980s doctors were relatively overworked and underpaid but professionalism and vocation commanded public respect. As a result of a spectacularly mishandled negotiation by Labour the much needed investment in the health services went to funding large pay rises hand in hand with a reduced service to the public. GPs ditched out of hours and Saturday surgeries because ministers misjudged the relative value of payments to doctors for these services and failed to ensure that patients' needs came first. They also waved through the European Working Time Directive that undermined continuity of care and if anything worsened working conditions and training for junior doctors. Assuming that all consultants were on the golf course or seeing private patients, the Government insisted that they should be paid only for the time they spent on NHS work. It should have come as no surprise that they ended up paying even more on account of unpaid time that consultants were previously happy to gift to the service.

A decade later, doctors are well paid and few GPs work Saturdays or nights; their out of hours work has largely been delegated to others and the days of continuity of care have been eroded. The public are unlikely to feel the same about doctors earning over £100,000 per year, sometimes for a 4 day week, who decide to go on strike over their pensions.

To put this into perspective, doctors currently earning over £120,000 currently pay 8.4% and this would eventually rise to 14.4% but for those on £45,000 contributions would rise to just 9.3%.

Is that so unreasonable? To get an equivalent pension in the private sector would require about a third of their salary and doctors are living around 10 years longer than they did in the 1970s.

The rest of the country has woken up to the reality of pensions affordability and in the coming weeks we may all witness what happens to a country like Greece which fails to do so at all. No government wants to pick a fight over pensions, but to ignore demographic and financial realities would dump the entire burden on the next generation. Who could blame them for refusing to pick up the tab?

I hope doctors will follow at least one aspect of the BMA's advice; 'Whatever your views it's vital you vote.' I hope they will not vote for action that would have such a significant impact on their patients; the public will neither understand nor sympathise.

I'm often asked what's the difference between being a GP and an MP? One wag put it like this; 'about £40,000 a year'. I would add for the record that as an MP I now pay 13.75% towards my pension and like most of my colleagues work evenings and many Saturdays.

Of course one of the main differences is the way people feel about you. I hadn't realised how much people like and respect doctors until I swapped the G for an M! That support matters and the public will be unlikely to respect a vote for strike action over doctors' pensions.

Perhaps every doctor should ask a friend who doesn't work in the State Sector how much they will be getting when they retire and how much they have to contribute; they may be in for a shock.

This would not be a victimless strike. The BMA have made the wrong call and I hope that doctors will vote to put their patients first.

Online victims need the protection of the law

The viciousness of online commentary following any opinion piece is enough to make anyone think twice before expressing their views. Trolls vent their spleen confident in their anonymity and take great pleasure in their faceless spite. For most in the public eye the answer is to grow a thicker skin and resist the temptation to rise to the bait.

For rape victims, it is altogether more serious and increases the risk that sexual violence will go unreported. In recent years we have begun to make progress in persuading victims to come forward. One in four women reading this may be a victim of sexual violence at some time in their lives but few will make a formal complaint to the police. For men, the taboos can be even greater and support networks available to women are often unavailable.

If you have sex with someone who is too drunk to be able to consent then he or she is not consenting and this means that you are a rapist. That message was delivered loud and clear by the jury in the trial of Ched Evans and his victim deserved respect for having the courage to come forward. The law should also have ensured her lifetime anonymity. That she has been named and abused online is a contempt of court and unless those responsible are held to account, we can expect this to continue.

There are those who see the internet as a forum which is above the law and who regard any restriction as an assault on free speech. I disagree, just as we do not want the State to trample on our privacy neither should we allow the equivalent of an online mob to do so. We all deserve the protection of the law, none more so than the traumatised victims of sexual violence.

I hope the police will investigate and take action. We have seen that this is possible with the conviction of a student, Liam Stacey following his hateful online racist postings about Fabrice Muamba.

The argument that there were too many who posted Ched Evans' victim's name to make it possible to take action is wrong. The police could and should use this case to take action and make an example of those who seek to hide behind their own mask of anonymity to abuse the more pressing right of victims to this protection.

Picking through the statistical minefield

'There are truths, economical truths and statistics' might be a better version of the original quote about them. Since tweeting that waiting times for 18 week waits had decreased, a story was printed in the Guardian claiming the opposite, so can both be correct?

We collect so much data on NHS performance that it can sometimes be difficult to see the wood for the trees. Information is collected on those who are currently waiting, the most up to date figure, as well as those who have completed treatment. There is also data that separates those admitted from those not admitted to hospital.

The Guardian story was based on a report from the Patients Association which showed the average waits from an incomplete sample of those who had completed their treatment rather than those still waiting in the system.

If you treat people who have been waiting the very longest, the so-called statistical outliers, then you improve the average wait of those currently in the system but this does then skew the average times that appear in the statistics for those who have completed treatment...especially if you only look at a sample rather than the whole picture.

It is why overall it would be better to move towards a focus on measures of outcomes; did it work and did the patient feel happy with the way they were treated. The problem is that this is also fraught with difficulty; for some conditions improvements may be difficult to measure or entirely subjective. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try, certainly the move to improve data on both one year and five year cancer survival will help to identify and improve early cancer diagnosis.

In the meantime, based on the most up to date measures, current waiting times for NHS treatment have never been lower and we should celebrate the successes as well as highlight areas that need improvement.

Next week the House of Commons debates the impact of the European Working Time Directive on the NHS. Please write to me if you have personal experience of this.

NHS Reforms

Click here to watch Sarah on BBC Breakfast discussing the NHS reforms.

As the Health and Social Care Bill makes its way through Parliament, please get in touch to let me know what you think. If you have been a patient or carer or if you are working in our NHS I would like to hear from you.

In South Devon, GPs have been working closely with the Primary Care Trusts to get the new system to work and I am confident that we will continue to have an excellent local health service as a result.