Consultation News

Designs for a Fife attraction’s new visitor centre could be ripped up just days before work was due to begin. Fife Council admitted the consultation on the £1 million hub for Lochore Meadows Country Park, which has been likened to a prison block, “could have been handled better”. At the eleventh hour it agreed to

Hospital closures planned to shore up NHS finances could be derailed if enough people take to the streets in protest, a health service chief has said. Chris Hopson, leader of England’s hospitals sector, said public unrest and opposition by local MPs could scupper so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), which are billed as crucial to

Carlisle Socialist Party members handed in a 1,500-signature petition on 9 November demanding that Cumbria County Council scrap its plan to halve the number of care home places. The protest was featured on ITV Border News and in the local newspaper the News & Star. “With increasing demand, provision should be increased, not cut. This

Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire councils yesterday gave their final endorsement to a devolution deal. Last June, the three councils decided to move forward with the £1bn West of England devolution deal and a public consultation was carried out in July and August. The leader of Bath & North East Somerset

Former staff members have hit out at the proposals which come despite the area ranked the second worst in Scotland for domestic abuse. Cuts to women’s services are on the cards despite West Dunbartonshire ranking as the second worst area in Scotland for domestic abuse. The controversial proposals have been branded “appalling” by former staff

The controversial Future Fit review of hospital services, which could see the loss of the accident and emergency unit at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, has come under renewed fire from Councillor Shaun Davies. It was revealed yesterday that a public consultation on the plans, which had been due to begin at the start of October,

NHS chiefs are trying to keep plans to cut hospital services in England secret, an investigation has found. Full details of 44 reviews of services around the country – which involve closing some A&Es or, in one case, a whole hospital – are yet to emerge. That is because NHS England told local managers to

Developers hoping to build a retail park in Porthmadog have been accused by a local resident of not respecting the Welsh language. Morbaine Limited is intending to apply for outline planning permission for a development on land at Penamser Estate for two non-food retail units, one with ancillary garden centre, a hotel with a café/restaurant and

Rhion Jones writes, “This was surprising, an American lecturing us on how to handle our high-profile NHS/Social Care planning process – STPs. Apart from criticising our ‘footprint’ terminology, his advice on public engagement is well worth a read.” Original article: Jason Helgerson, the man at the helm of New York State’s Medicaid programme, has spent