Agenda and minutes

Cllr Graham Vickery welcomed everyone to the meeting, which he would be chairing, as Cllr Paul Tuthill was away.

Apologies had also been received from Cllr Alan Amos.

Apologies had also been received from Ken Pollock, Cabinet Member for Economy, Skills and Infrastructure and from John Smith, new Cabinet Member for Health and Well-being.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by email indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 17 May 2016).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/email address below.

None.

Previously circulated.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

In attendance for this item were:

Future of Acute Hospital Services in Worcestershire Programme:

Lucy Noon, Programme Director and Claire Austin, Communications and Engagement Lead

Worcestershire County Council Transport Commissioning

Paul Smith, Transport Commissioning and Logistics Manager

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust  - James Longmore, Director of Asset Management

Healthwatch Worcestershire – Peter Pinfield, Chair

Cllr Vickery welcomed the representatives from the Future of Acute Hospital Services in Worcestershire (FoAHSW) Programme Board.

Members of the Council's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee had also been invited to the discussion, and Cllr Mary Rayner was present, in addition to Cllr Vickery himself.

Lucy Noon, Programme Director and referred panel members to the agenda report, which summarised the aim of the programme to re-configure acute hospital services in Worcestershire, a process initiated in 2012. The agenda included the report of the Transport Task and Finish Group and the response from the FoAHSW Programme Board.

A model of care had been found to be appropriate, and following considerable consultation, kindly supported by Healthwatch Worcestershire, was in its final stages of the NHS England assurance process. Part of the proposed model of care involved centralising some services at Worcestershire Royal Hospital (WRH) and providing more planned care at the Alexandra Hospital (AH), which would lead to more patients and their carers travelling to Worcester and Redditch for some aspects of care. The plans would not affect outpatient appointments or diagnostic tests and 95% of patients would continue to receive treatment at the same hospital as they did now. Although births would be centralised at WRH, antenatal and postnatal care would continue to be provided locally.

The agenda included the report of the Transport Task and Finish Group, which had been established in November 2014 to explore how issues relating to transport arising from the proposed re-configuration of acute hospital services in Worcestershire could be mitigated. Part of this had involved an integrated equality impact assessment and looking at the particular groups affected. It was found that 90% of people travelling to hospital would do so by car.

It was recognised that hospital parking was at a premium, particularly at the Worcester site. However, work had been carried out including creation of capacity offsite at Sixways rugby ground, particularly for staff – and complaints had virtually disappeared.

There were no parking problems at the Redditch and Kidderminster hospital sites.

Park and ride facilities had been in existence for some time at Sixways. Commercial bus services had reduced significantly, therefore the regularity and service hours of park and ride services had been extended, and usage had steadily increased, mainly by staff and a small, regular group of patients. The buses were very good and were free for staff, which provided an incentive for use.

Members of the public using the hospital park and ride paid a nominal £1 fee. Hospital parking costs started at £2.50 for an hour, £3.70 for 2-3 hours, £4.50 for 2-4 hours, rising to £7.50 for the day.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 242.

Nigel Hudson, Head of Strategic Infrastructure and Economy gave a presentation, which provided a brief update on major infrastructure schemes.

Rachel Hill, Strategic Commissioner for major projects was unable to attend.

Current pipeline schemes included:

·         Southern Link Road Phase 4 – Carrington Bridge. The construction programme was scheduled to be completed by 2020/21. Phase 4 would complete dualling of the A4440 to the Powick roundabout. The Directorate was optimistic that government funding would be forthcoming, and Worcestershire's scheme was the only one mentioned in budget papers

·         A38 Corridor – included improvements by Highways England to junction 1. The £25million scheme was aimed at enabling planned growth

·         Kidderminster Railway Station

·         Local Transport Plan (LTP4)

·         Pershore – Key Tech Link, designed to improve and relieve current congestion. The scheme links to Great Western Railway's own plans for Pershore station, which would eventually have more car parking

·         M5 Works Junction 4-7 – junctions 4 and 7 were complete and all work was funded by Highways England. The Council's input was at junction 6, to maximise capacity of the infrastructure, with a bigger fix on the horizon

·         A46 Improvement - Evesham

Examples of projects in delivery were:

·         Hoobrook Link Road Phase 2 - £16million project, involving several funding sources, due for completion in Autumn 2016 .

·         Cathedral Square – a redesign of the square would release more space for recreational and retail use, and had been very well received

·         Worcester Southern Link Road Phase 3 – an important scheme around Whittington roundabout, since heavy traffic use was projected to increase by 20-30% by 2026.

·         Worcestershire Parkway Regional Interchange – an exciting, key driver to improve accessibility to Worcestershire. A report was due to go to Council in July, and it was important to complete the project before HS2 started in 2019.

·         Worcester Six Business Park: Offside Highways Project.

The Chairman thanked the Head of Infrastructure and Economy for the update.

The Democratic Governance and Scrutiny Manager updated the Panel on its 2016/2017 work programme, which had been discussed by Council on 12 May.

In approving the programme, two items had been removed:

·         What are the benefits to Worcestershire of 20MPH speed limits and how does this link to residents' parking policy?

·         How can the Council support retail whilst it is in transition and help support and retain retail employees

An updated copy of the Panel's work programme was circulated, which also included outstanding topics from the 2015/16 programme, and a refresh of the Corporate Plan.

The Vice Chair had consulted the Chair and panel members about a potential schedule, which the scrutiny officers would look to progress.

Section 106 and 278s were suggested for the next meeting, in particular to understand processes and obstacles around more efficient utilisation of funding from developers for infrastructure – which were of concern to several panel members and may merit further work.

Climate Change – the Panel was content that this would be picked up by the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board (OSPB) work programme, which would like at whether the County Council could do more around environmental mitigation. Cllr Jenkins pointed out that climate change should be in the background of all scrutiny work.

Footways – work was nearing completion, including a pilot with a group of councillors. Panel members were content for the Task Group to report to the OSPB, which had approved the initial proposal. Panel members would be notified of the appropriate date, and were welcome to attend.

20MPH speed limits – some trials were underway, and panel members pointed out that schools could have advisory limits by installation of signs with flashing lights, which although not enforceable by the police, were reported to be successful. The Panel recommended future consideration of 20MPH speed limits by the OSPB, in view of the cross-cutting issues, such as benefits to public health and the need for public education.