In 1929, at the inception of the Council for the Protection of Rural England's appeal for public support, our forebears, Stanley Baldwin, J.Ramsay MacDonald and David Lloyd George, pledged their support for the English countryside in a letter to The Times. In the year of the CPRE's seventieth anniversary, we are pleased to make that commitment again.
During the next few months we shall differ on so many problems of public importance that we gladly take the opportunity of showing that on one subject we speak with a united voice - namely, in advocating the protection of our countryside in its rich personality and character.
We do this in full confidence that necessary development can and should be directed with thoughtful and scrupulous attention to the charm of our countryside. Much of its beauty is the direct result of man's activities 9n the past; and in these days when the objectives of planning and land management and the appreciation of landscape are more widely shared than ever before, we ought to be able to make necessary changes in ways that avoid injuring our precious heritage.
John Major
Tony Blair
Paddy Ashdown
The Times 9th February 1996
Don't Move It
Whatever are people thinking of suggesting that the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital be moved after years in the centre of our city?
I have been using the services there for years and whenever I go I meet other pensioners. I know how difficult it is to get there; many of them bus in from surrounding villages. It would be a mistake to move it.
I live in Norwich and am always glad to have my family take me there. The Norfolk & Norwich is Buckuingham Palace to most of our elderly citizens. For our sakes, let it stay where it is.
Mrs E Pond
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 7th March 1996
Put Issue of Hospital to the Vote
The ongoing saga of the new Norwich hospital appears to be dissolving into complete farce once again. Perhaps someone could refresh my memory if there was ever a convincing case made in favour of the Colney site.
Yourpaper (3/3/96) has put quite succintly the arguments for and against the two sites,
Perhaps the people of the region should make the choice through a referendum. It's going to be their hospital after all.
Personally I prefer the city centre site. Perhaps the available Nestle site could be converted into an underground car park with a landscaped garden on top (an extension to Chapelfield Gardens).
Lets not decimate our city centre any further.
If the choice has to be Colney, it seems quite obvious that a link road from the southern bypass would be easily the best access option.
PJ Linstead
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 14th March 1996
Wake up, folk of Norwich and Norfolk. Do not let them move the N&N Hospital out of the city.
It will be disasterous not just for the people but the city itself.
When people come to visit relatives and loved ones they also like to do a little shopping. And I know that if I were in hospital out in the wilds, no onenwould be able to see me.
I think this new hospital will be for private patients; for those who can afford to pay.
Then people like me will have to suffer longer.
P Pattern
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th April 1996
Upgrade Good Old N&N
Did I read it correctly? On page four of the Evening News (28/3/96) was an article headed Health Cash for Buses, with a statement that the East Norfolk Health Commission might subsidise bus services to a new hospital at Colney.
On page nine was the heading: £2 million Overspend on Health Predicted.
It was the self same health commission that had overspent on its £330 million budget for 1995-6. And there was little that could be done to cut costs.
It's like a business man in the red starting up a new business in new premises.
Visions come to mind of pensioners in the near future having to use Fred Flintstone's means of transport to Colney.
To even consider Colney as the best alternative site to the N&N and the west Norwich hospitals is daft.
All that we need is a gradual modernisation of the good, old N&N. It is central and accessible.
Here's hoping that whoever has the last word onOUR hospital thinks long and deep about the concerns of almost all of Norfolk's widespread community before committing people to unreasonable, unwarrented and unnecessary journeys to what would be village hospital with even fewer beds than at present.
More pressure must be put on those concerned to think again.
LE Barney
Drayton
Eastern Evening News 11th April 1996
Wake Up Before it's Too Late
Wake up, Norwich and save the N&N Hospital.
Malcolm Stamp said (EEN 3/4/96) that the new hospital at Colney was a milestone for the NHS. Surely he meant a millstone?
He also said it would be second to none. I believe it will be NONE in the near future - unless you have insurance to cover you.
It's taking private finance to build it. It's the next step to getting rid of our NHS. That's why the Government approved.
It has 500 beds fewer than we have now, there will be longer waiting lists and it's a job to get to. If Norwich folk can sit back and swallow this - shame on you.
DS Guyton
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th April 1996
Why We Support Move to Colney
The Norfolk Group of Fundholding General Practitioners has followed the debate in your pages on the issue of the next N&N Hospital (known as Norwich 2) with interest.
Following a presentation by the N&N Acute Unit Trust, and with its extensive experience in the purchasing of health services for its patients, the group has asked me to inform the public of its unanimous support for the Norwich 2 project.
It is felt to be the correct decision because:
The present hospital is ageing and will not be easily able to adapt to the very different demands of health care for the comimg years. It is expensive to maintain, and stands on a restricted site.
Parking facilities are woefully inadequate and lead to enormous difficulty and frustration for patients.
Morale in any institution is affected by the surroundings in which staff work. Anew hospital on a green field site will greatly enhance the standards of care for our patients by boosting staff morale and efficiency.
Delay now could mean the whole project being shelved for several more years, leading to the unnecessary protraction of all the problems of the present building.
We really do not want a situation that might force us to purchase elsewhere, thereby taking funds out of Norfolk.
The Health Commission has assured us that the necessary transfer of funds to enable us to take on the work in the community to support the reduction in size will be forthcoming. We believe that our patients greatly prefer receiving their care locally whenever possible.
There is nothing for our patieents to fear from a transfer to a greenfield site. This was accomplished successfully at Great Yarmouth under much more difficult geographical circumstances. And nobody can dispute that the move brought benefits to residents.
We believe that the benefits, in terms of improved functional and academic excellence, will preserve and enhance the undoubted reputation of the Norwich hospitals in many fields of health care.
We do not see the PFI as any sort of threat to the future NHS. Rather, it will ensure that the new unit is built speedily, efficiently, and in budget, thereby ensuring that future costs are kept under control.
Traffic flow to the city centre is already causing enormous problems. This plan can only aaleviate them.
But on two issues we are in agreement with the critics of the scheme.
Firstly, we see the sense in building access \to the new hospital from the southern bypass, and hope that the city planners will support this idea.
Secondly, we have anxieties over the number of beds that will be available.
We sahll be seeking guarantees for all Nirfolk patients, through the contracting process, that the Trust will ensure that the performance of the new unit will be able to fully meet anticipated fluctuations in demand.
We feel that 700 - 800 beds are needed for this to be achieved.
Dr Brian Elvy
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 17th April 1996
Lets Have a Proper Public Inquiry
There is no argument with Dr Elvy's opinion (EEN 17/4/96) that we need a new hospital, nor that the parking arrangements at the present one are inadequate.
Not everyone agrees that it is necessary to move to the outskirts.
Relocating traffic pollution, congestion and parking problems is not a cure. It makes more sense to tackle them where they are. Architectural advice is that there is no special problem in rebuilding on the present 14 acre site. Inconvenient perhaps, more expensive may be. It is easier and cheaper to plunder the countryside.
It is difficult to see how staff morale is improved by isolating them on a soon to be covered in asphalt field some miles from the city centre. The way to improve staff morale and efficiency is by paying a decent wage, not to erode earnings with
transport costs and the perils of a captive market.
Questions of delay are properly addressed to those who scuppered the Hellesdon proposals and then allowed planning permission for Colney to lapse. The hospital has been on its present site for over 200 years. Todays decisions will affect the pattern of medical care for the next 200.
The City can ill afford the defection of yet another large institution. It will be a blow to the economy and to social
life. Revenue will be lost. Mr Stamp of the Trust and Dr Walker of the Health Commission both say that this is no concern of
theirs. Dr Elvy does not appear to be concerned either. However many citizens and patients from the City and from the
County are very concerned.
What is the significance of the "1" in 701? It is so precise that it smacks of administrative convenience rather than clinical need - it happens to be the smallest number above 700. The East Norfolk Health Commission currently purchases 85,000 cases per year from the Trust. It has undertaken to purchase 65,000 if Norwich 2 opens. 4,000 of the shortfall are due to be turned over to general practice - Dr Elvy appears confident that funding for this will materialise one day. What of the other 16,000? Do health care requirements decrease over the years? Is not the 701 arrangement in the nature of a foot in the door to pave the way for expansion?
How will people get there? They will have to use their cars. These will be funnelled into a cul-de-sac off the Watton Road to
face whatever parking charges the Consortium are inclined to levy. More roads always lead to more traffic, compounding the problems of pollution and congestion. There is no hope of access from the A47, the Highways Agency refuses to consider it. What of those with no car? They must rely upon public transport (bus fare 95p each way today), cycling or walking. A subsidy would deflect cash from patient care.
Who believes the consortium to be philanthropists? What is in it for them? Why is the management and financial expertise ascribed to the private sector not to be found within the NHS?
We know what some doctors think. Can we hear from the patients? The letter of the law may well have been observed, but there are a great number of people who feel unconsulted.
Today's application is a different animal from that granted planning permission in 1988. It is for the only hospital as opposed to a second hospital (that is why it is called Norwich 2), there are graver access problems, other City centre sites are
available, Government guidelines have changed (even the government itself may change), it is to be privately funded. If a
public enquiry was essential in 1988 surely the situation is more compelling today.
Can we have a proper public enquiry about these new proposals, with effective wide publicity to ensure that the public's views are heard this time?
Dr Geoff Clayton
Colney
Eastern Evening News 18th April 1996
Why Rip up the Countryside?
Why waste money on a new hospital? Who is Malcolm Stamp to be allowed to tear out the heart from our city?
Parts of Aylsham and Cromer hospitals are being shut down, yet he wants to build another.
It does not make sense, especially if you live in north Norfolk. Why rip up the countryside when it is not really necessary?
We are proud of our hospitals and if the administrators did not keep messing them about we would have the best.
Consultants, doctors and nurses are doing their best, even though there is a shortage of them.
Wards are being closed because too much is spent on administration and not enough on real necessities.
Things were much better organised when it was left to the matron to run the hospital.
I believe a new "private" hospital of the style suggested will cost more to run than both city hospitals put together.
I hope South Norfolk District Council says no to this wildcat scheme.
H Bullock
Horsham St Faith
Eastern Evening News 18th April 1996
George Borrow Would Turn in His Grave
Just what is happening to our so-called Fine City?
George Borrow would turn in his grave if he were able to witness what is going on today.
Is our heritage to be gradually eroded for the sake of "state of the art"?
Never maind about convenience, we have a new post office tucked away in a dungeon and eventually will ahve a new hospital well out of the reach of the majority of Norwich citizens.
No one will deny that progress id inevitable in a modern socuety, but not entirely at the expense of so much nostalgia endeared in the hearts of Norwich people.
Forget Technopolis. After the tragedy of our library, it is now expected that Strangers Hall will be closed with the Brideweell Museum possibly meeting the same fate.
Perish the thought! Lets get a new library built as soon as possible on the original site and a hospital in the city centre where the pros so outweigh the cons that it is hardly a contest.
It won't happen of course. For the powers that be make up their minds about such projects; nothing will budge them it seems.
BA Stone
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 20th April 1996
Protests Over Colney No Surprise
As an ex-employee of the N&N Health care trust it came as no surprise to me to read that the people of Norwich do not want, or need, a new hospiyal at Colney Lane.
It also came as no surprise that Malcolm Stamp and his cluster look likely to ignore the rational concerns of the "born and bred" folk of Norfolk and Norwich.
The new Trust seems to show little or no regard for any issue that does not involve cost-cutting or profit-making.
Business attitudes can be very dangerous and, at worst, life threatening in a caring environment.
Cost is not the "be all and end all" where health and happiness are concerned.
I am convinced that this whole concept is a move along the road to privatisation.
If the Government spent the £170 million within the existing hospitals structure, I feel this area would have a health care environment that could compete with the best.
I, for one, look forward to seeing this obsession with money removed from our hospitals once and for all.
Bernard Ivison
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 20th April 1996
No Need to Rush Ahead With an Ill-advised Scheme
The press officer for the East Norfolk Fundholders has raised a number of points which he says support the siting of the new hospital at Colney.
At the public meeting on April 10th all of these points were debated, and local people voted overwhelmingly to keep the hospital in Norwich.
The present Norfolk & Norwich has been updated and is providing substantially more beds than the proposed new hospital at Colney.
A staff nurse at the meeting indicated that many changes had taken place to enhance the efficiency of the service and she couldn't see why the hospital needed to move out of the city centre.
As for parking facilities, more will have to be provided in an out of town site. Many people do not have access to a car and would be disadvantaged by the move.
The recent report from the Royal Commission on the Environmental Pollution indicated we needed to reduce car use, not encourage it.
The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has come under fire from the treasury select committee in the House of Commons recently, and the treaury has changed the guidelines suggesting some public projects are not suitable for PFI.
There are many, including myself, who think hospitals should not be run for private profit.
Changes have been made to the proposal since initial planning approval. Not least is that originally the scheme was for a second hospital and not a replacement for the N&N.
Added to this, this new planning guidance from the Department of the Environment is against out of town developments. There is no need to rush ahead with an ill-advised scheme with no public support.
A full public enquiry looking at all the options, including new sites within Norwich, would be a far more sensible step.
Adrian Holmes
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 22nd April 1996
Penniless, I Walked to Hospital
When I heard about the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital moving to Colney I was disgusted.
Do they not think of people on low incomes?
When my five year old son hurt his toe I took him to the doctor who said he should go to hospital.
I didn't have one penny in my purse, because I am on income support, so I walked to the hospital.
As my son couldn't walk, I had to take hime in a pushchair in the freezing cold.
When I got there two hours later, the doctor said it was just bruising.
Then I had to walk back home; another two hours.
If anything like this happens after the new hospital opens, what am I supposed to do?
I have no one else to turn to. I pay all my council taxes and this is what I get in return.
My husband worked for Nestle Rowntree but he was laid off and received only a week's wages.
The people should have had a say in whether the hospital was moved.
Why not have one hospital in Colney and one in the city?
And why some lottery money for the hospital rather than the opera?
Kim Empson
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 22nd April 1996
It Would Mean Two Buses Each Way for Folk on Outskirts of City
Barry Ross says that if teh new hospital goes to Colney we will have an economic desert in St Stephen's. That is right!
And what will happen to the present buildings? No mention of that.
Why can't it be left where it is? If we need another hospital for specialised medicine, medical expertise and new opportunities in the field of medicine, I am sure it could all be accommodated in the Nestle Rowntree factory close by.
It is all very well to plan a move to Colney when one is hale and hearty and has plenty of money to waste.
But it is a different story when one is not so well, and has not much money to throw around.
For people on the outskirts of Norwich, travelling to Colney will mean at least two buses each way.
And why are there less beds? Do the powers that be think there will be fewer people ill in the future?
Let the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital sty as and where it is.
Mr & Mrs J Moore
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 22nd April 1996
This Doesn't Make Sense
When the Larkman, Tuckswood and Heartsease estates were built to accommodate the rising population, we had a small Norfolk & Norwich Hospital.
A new block had to be added to meet our needs. Now they want to put up a smaller hospital with fewer beds to cover an ever increasing population.
Will this be a jack the rabbit situation - in in the morning, out in the afternoon?
Somebody's statsitics are wrong somewhere.
Even the Evening News had to expand to meet the demand for newspapers.
D Guyton
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 22nd April 1996
How Would Injured Cyclist Have Made it to Colney?
We would like to enter the "Keep N&N Hospital in Norwich" campaign.
Recently one of our members fell off his cycle in the early hours of the morning and broke his wrist.
He was able to lock up his cycle and walk to the N&N for treatment, emerging an hour or so later...
He was then able to walk back to his cycle, unlock it, and wheel it home.
But suppose the N&N had been at Colney. He would have had to lock up his bike and either:
Call a cab to take him to and from the hospital (cost £10 - plus)
Go by bus (non-existent after midnight
Walk there and back (a 10 mile round trip)
Call an ambulance.
Our member would obviously have called an ambulance, as indeed would any other member of the public who had suffered a minor accident requiring hospital treatment with no other way of getting there.
I wonder what it costs to call out an emergency ambulance at 3am.
Even more important is the fact that the ambulance could have been needed for a life threatening emergency.
Les Hopkins
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 24th April 1996
Muddled Reasons for Opposing the Move
Surely thinking people must be amazed at the controversial and muddled reasons of those who are doing their level best to stop a new hospital coming to Colney.
One gentleman, who came years ago to our meeting at Colney to tell us how good it would be to have Bupa there, is now saying the opposite about the proposed Norwich 2.
They keep telling us that moving the hospital would turn St Stephens into a desert.
What about the city centre shops and post offices that are disappearing down the not so marvellous Castle Mall?
To thos who say use Nestle as a car park for the existing hospital, have thhey tried Chapel Field and St Stephens roundabout at peak times?
Underpasses, which you would have to have, are out of favour because of crime!
Tower blocks, I should think, are as much out of favour for hospitals as for dwellings.
One section tells us the new hospital will spoil the Yare Valley and another part of the consortium, should the hospital come to Colney, want a road across the marshes!
I notice we are also getting graffiti on the hospital sign at the proposed Colney site.
Perhaps it would do more good if we remembered that since joining the European Union I should think we have paid nearly a hundred billion pounds into the Euro Gravy Train, money which would have for our hospital and the roads into it.
This, no one likes talking about!
SN Scarfe
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th May 1996
Thanks for Backing Campaign
Both myself and Denise Carlo would like to express our sincere thanks to all who have pledged their support for our campaign by way of letters and telephone calls.
Thanks also for all the donations. They are a great help and go towards the costs of making people aware of the dreadful plans to close our two hospitals in favour of the new state of the art smaller version at Colney.
Obviously, there are thousands of people who are completely against these plans and for a variety of reasons.
Your comments have all been noted and illustrate how strong your feelings run.
We inform you that the planning application meeting for May 29th has in fact been put back to a later date, possibly in June, so there is even more time now to have your say. Please therefore drop a few lines direct to the planners at South Norfolk District Council, Swan Lane, Long Stratton as soon as possible.
There is no need to mention yet again all the reasons why this plan is not satisfactory, to so many people.
One has to wonder why so much money is being spent at the moment on alterations and improvements at the N&N when there are plans to close it in a few years time. It really makes no sense.
Bill Kite
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 20th May 1996
Wrong Mr Stamp
"We Have no option to stay in Norwich and we have permission to build at Colney" (EEN 15/5/96). Wrong on both counts Mr Stamp. You do not have permission to build at Colney. Many people consider that the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital should remain in the City. These people include patients, the Minister of the Environment, the shadow minister, local politicians, architects, hospital consultants, GPs, nurses, other hospital workers and members of the public.
The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital belongs to the citizens of the City and the County. They have a deep emotional attachment stretching over two centuries. It does not belong to the Trust nor to any other un-elected committee. Fundamental change requires deep and prolonged consultation with the public. This has not happened. There has been sufficient to satisfy the lawyers it is true, but not enough to involve the roots.
The size of the hospital is important, it should contain at least the provision on the Norfolk & Norwich site at present - if not we should question the need to move at all. Or is the 701 bed suggestion a ruse to get it through planning? The planners are like headless chickens at present trying to resolve the traffic and access problems at Colney. What will they be like when the "flexibility and change" provisions come into play doubling the size of the hospital?
There appears to be no shortage of money to spend at the Norfolk and Norwich today. Surely a Private Funding Initiative can make as much profit from the City Centre as from the suburbs?
Last minute public meetings with no publicity (10th April). Public meetings with walkouts by the Trust (20th May). Is this the way to conduct serious discussion?
Let us acknowledge the time and effort put in by the Trust and its predecessors. Let us not forget that it was the
consultants who by sending a deputation to Whitehall in 1986 are responsible for our new hospital not being up and running today.
There is public concern that there should be the best provision that can be achieved wherever that may be
geographically. There is much to be said for a review. There is a danger of building the wrong hospital in the wrong place.
Thank you Mr Wilson for taking an interest. Thank you also for troubling to express your concern. We are told that the new hospital will be a flagship for the whole country. Views from other parts of the fleet are most welcome.
Dr G.M.Clayton
Colney
Eastern Evening News 24th May 1996
No Way!
Mike Haslam, chief planning officer on South Norfolk Council, states: "We are dealing here, in law, with a simple planning application, no different from that for a house or for a shopping complex".
I sincerely hope that the planning committee sees it differently.
Simple, it is not. They are dealing with the concerns and opinions of a county which has expressed no desire to have a hospital shuttled into the backwoods.
I'm sure no council would ever give planning permission for, say, an abattoir in a main urban area.
Colney is possibly a very nice place to recuperate after an operation but it is hardly the location to cater for the majority of those who need immediate medical attention. Sometimes seconds count when it is a matter of life and death.
So please, South Norfolk, heed the majority of Norfolk's population who say: "No way!"
LE Barney
Drayton
Eastern Evening News 31st May 1996
We'll Pay dearly
Norfolk & Norwich Healthcare NHS Trust has proposed a new PFI hospital to be built at Colney.
So what's PFI? Private Finance Initiative.
This is a new schene developed by the present Government which will encourage private commerce to fund building and maintenance of new public buildings - and even own them.
The financial burden of finding the money to construct and maitain new public buildings will thus be transferred to the private sector, with the Government paying the rent.
New PFI hospitals will be owned by private companies and rented for use by the Hospital Trusts. Splendid, so our taxes have to provide less capital to keep us with modern public secTor buildings.
In our case, Octagon Healthcare, the consortium set up and owned by John Laing Construction and BZW Bank will apy for the building, and any enhancements, of our planned new hospital.
They will own it and our Hospital Trust will be their tenants.
Octagon will then make their profit by renting and/or leasing, to the N&N NHS Trust, the bits of the site and complex that the hospital needs to do its job.
All the support and service facilities will be owned and run by Octagon. Visitors will pay Octagon for parking their cars at the hospital. The discharge hotel, which is part of the N&N proposed planning application, will also be run by Octagon.
It is expected that Octagon will keep the lease charges made to the N&N Trust at an artificially low level which will keep it in good favour with the Government. This will be possible by Octagon primarily making its profits from high charges to patients and visitors for all the support service facilities.
To encourage this private investment, and to help the private company make a good profit, one suspects that the Government, directly involved in the decisions will have effectively taken away planning control from the local council for this and neighbouring sites.
If we are not careful, local planning control is lost by the local council to a combination of private commerce and the Government.
We could finish up with a small commercial village in Norwich's green belt of the Yare Vallley with the villages of Cringleford and Colney merged together by this commercial blot.
Graham Oldfield
Cringleford
Eastern Evening News 31st May 1996
Leading Light
Amid all the information and misinformation about the N&N Hospital, I am sure I must be the only person still alive who would remember that it and the Leicester Royal Infirmary were rated the two leading non-teaching hospitals in the country by the now defunct British Hospitals Association.
FL Gatfield
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
MacGregor's Quote Really Summed it Up
"A 21st century hospital that would be one of the best in the country and the flagship for the PFI" - quote from Mr John MacGregor MP.
He has really summed it up!
The question is not where best to site the hospital or what facilities are needed for the future health care of those who have to use it, but how this Government can push for private finance to build and maintain NHS hospitals.
This has become something of a test case and the Government does not want to fail.
PA Godfrey
Mulbarton
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
Application Should Be Turned Down
You quote Mike Haslam, Chief Planning Officer for South Norfolk Council, as saying the proposed Colney hospital must be treated as a "simple planning application no different from that for a home or shopping complex."
If this is true then it must be turned down.
Although the site is allocated for a hospital in the local plan this is out of date with the relevant Government guidance which has emerged since the local plan was considered.
That the Government guidance must be taken into account is quite clear (it is a material consideration in planning jargon) and hospitals should be located in or adjacent to town centres where they are easily accessible and help support the overall economy of the centre.
In these circumstances the guidance overrides the local plan.
It ahs been claimed that there are not two sites on offer. There ARE two options: relocate to Colney or retain the exising N&N Hospital.
The current site has the potential to be redeveloped for a new improved hospital, and it currently has more beds than the NHS Trust is seeking.
If more buildings are required it would be possible to build over the large car park area.
Money for redeveloping the N&N may not currently be available, but is the NHS Trust threatening people of Norwich and Norfolk that if Colney is refused it will stamp its feet and not campaign for funds for adequate facilities on the existing site?
The relocation of the hospital will be yet another disaster for the city centre.
Even the people of South Norfolk need a vibrant and vital city centre and a pattern of development that does not rely upon the car.
If South Norfolk Council believes in good planning then it must reject the Colney hospital application.
Stella Koenick
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
Think Again Before We Make Another Mistake
We should keep our hospitals in the city centre, chosen as the best place when they were built. Those people were very wise, weren't they? Accessible to all!
I've worked on wards in both hospitals and neither is crumbling or in need of pulling down.
Barts Hospital in London is much older but you don't hear of it being made redundant.
Why all the upheaval that we can ill afford? Please think again, before another gross mistake is made.
Mrs DM Welford
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
Dr Clayton Hit the Nail on the Head
Compliments to Dr GM Clayton . His letter (EEN 24/5/96) certainly tells Mr Stamp and associates where they stand.
The N&N and the West Norwich hospitals belong to the people of Norfolk not to his Trust.
If he wants to build a privately owned hospital, let him build one far away, and leave ours alone.
Perhaps when the Tories are swept under the carpet they'll sweep him and his ideas there too.
DS Guyton
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
Don't Have a Heart Attack!
"The needs of everyone who uses hospital services must be balanced" (Letters 27/5/96).
While the hospital is in the city people in all districts have an even chance.
If an ambulance has to travel from Colney those of us who live on the opposite side of the city would be ill-advised to have a heart attack.
Rosamund Royle
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd June 1996
This Just Insults Our Intelligence
Letters approving the hospital move to Colney seemingly come from the decision makers. Most people have few facts, but to many it seems patently wrong.
Repalcing 1,200 beds with just 700 (possibly 150 more) is unacceptable, and spending £170 million for it insults our intelligence.
Hospital managers fail to understand that we don't believe fewer beds will be needed.
Publish detailed figures why, and stay to face the music if you are wrong!
Our increasing population is ageing. Patients are bedded elsewhere after emergency operations. Beds are a top priority for hospitals.
There is more to this than just a building. This is not a supermarket but the hospital heart of Norwich. This is a community decision where everyone's opinion counts for as much as that of the hospital experts. We accept the delay.
If £170 million is available, we want more beds in an updated N&N with the Nestle site acquired for development.
We would rather lose Mr Stamp and his supporters than our city heart.
Dr Clayton (14/7/96) reminds us that some informed opinion opposes the move and that we still have a voice in the final decision.
Or do we, Mr Stamp?
Roy Hansell
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th June 1996
A Trojan Horse
It is difficult to make head or tail of the planning for the New Hospital at Colney. The difficulty is that no one knows how
large it is to be. The planning application is for 701 beds, the consultants guarantee that there will be more, Mr Falcon has
mentioned the figure of 1016, the application talks about "Flexibility and Change" which is a euphemism for expansion with
no upper limit. The present Traffic Impact Assessment for 701 beds is described as falling short of being satisfactory by Sir
Frederick Snow.
The plan "Additional Hospital Option 4" shows five kilometres of new roads to be built over the green fields around the hospital. This has the appearance of being concerned with property development rather than the needs of the NHS. The area will become another industrial commercial estate. What then of the Yare Valley? Of the centre of excellence? Of the pleasant countryside environment for patients and staff? Of our green belt? A Trojan Horse indeed.
Dr Geoff Clayton
Colney
Eastern Evening News 11th June 1996
The People Will Reject These Proposals
Perhaps it is just as well that Councillor Eamonn Burgess and Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate Ian Gibson didn't attend the rally protesting against the Colney hospital plans.
I wouldn't have thought their "Conservative" leader Tony Blair would have been best pleased with them being involved in a protest.
Incidentally, I didn't realise there was protest planned but I'm sure it's early days yet on this major issue. I'm also convinced that the people will kick these proposals back where they came from.
David Kett
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th June 1996
Why I'll Defend Mr Stamp
Regarding JMF Clarke's letter (27/5/96) headed: Why I'll defend Mr Stamp.
I was glad to read that Mr Stamp had appointed 31 new consultants at the N&N Hospital.
As he is so keen to have the hospital re-sited at Colney, with many less beds, I assume some of these consultants will be redundant.
There are not enough beds now. A close relative was on a trolley for six hours before he could be admitted to a ward. Could Mr Stamp publish the figures for people having operations cancelled at short notice? How much worse it will be with fewer beds.
Marcia Lawes
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 11th June 1996
Pity Norwich Didn't Follow Leicester's Lead
Mr Gatfield's succint and tactful letter (3/6/96) talks of "information and misinformation" concerning the N&N Hospital.
It is typical of a man whom everyone from cleaning ladies to consultants acknowledge to be the best "hospital secretary" during the time of radical change from "voluntary hospital" to the NHS era.
His "open door" policy was one I admired, first in 1954, and then again in the 1960s when I was appointed to the consultant staff.
"Freddie" regarded it a privilege to serve. His work led to a well deserved MBE.
Mr Gatfield mentions my native city of Leicester as the other leading provincial hospital; happily this is now a University Teaching Hospital. The site was expanded by annexing a vast acreage of land following the demolition of surrounding terraced houses. What a pity Norwich did not do the same as land became available many years ago!
Although the N&N Hospital was smaller in the early days, I was firmly told by my members at Bart's Hospital that "this was the best provincial hospital in which to be taught and gain experience".
Change and expansion has occurred, but its reputation remains at local, national and international levels. Wherever it is sited hopefully the "N&N" will continue to attract top class and dedicated staff. I trust it will also continue to enjoy administrative staff of Freddie Gatfield's calibre.
N Alan Green
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
A Pity These People Chose to Shun Michael Innes' Presentation
You printed the views (12/6/96) of a medical architect explaining why he couldn't redevelop the N&N Hospital site.
Had he or anyone else from the Trust attended Michael Innes' presentation at City Hall they would have realised how glib his reasons seem.
He thinks it would be difficult to run the hospital during the building period. How come it is possible at other hospitals?
He says Colney would have a more light and airy feel.
Imagine waking up in hospital after being knocked down by a car. looking out of the window at Colney you would see nothing but cars - the very nightmare that put you out there in the first place.
Mr Innes provides a green landscaped courtyard. I know which I prefer.
If you've got money, fine. If you're one of the 30 percent outside the car culture you need your district hospital in your district.
Destroying the life of a city centre for want of a bigger car park is completely out of order.
Eamonn Burgess
Councillor, Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
Most Want to Keep Hospital in Norwich
County and city buses all transport people in and out via the city centre.
Most county and city people can catch one bus if they need to go to the N&N Hospital.
Moving the hospital to Colney will mean that most people without cars will ahve to get one bus in to Norwich and another out to the hospital.
Providing an extra bus service from the city will not change that fact. Extra time and exrra cost will be incurred.
For working folk who can only visit during the evenings, that extra time and cost may mean that a visit is not possible.
This will make many peole desolate and depressed at a time they need to see their loved ones daily.
From the Evening News letters page it seems obvious that a large majority of people want to keep the N&N Hospital at the heart of Norwich.
I say to Mr Stamp and members of the Hospital Trust: please do what most of us want and keep our hospital in the city centre.
It would benefit all of us if the Hospital Trust and local councils and businesses bought the Nestle site for car parking, thus bringing patients, visitors and business to Norwich.
Stanley Copland
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
I'm Sorry for Committee
You can't help but feel sory for South Norfolk Council's humble planning committee.
The awesome job of deciding on Colney hospital has been made more difficult by havin a chief planning officer who appears to present the issue as something of a fait accompli and who, it seems, would prefer to avoid scrutiny of some serious issues affecting the city.
How can the public have any confidence that this application will be decided fairly?
More than ever, and with no disrespect to the committee, a proper public inquiry is the only acceptable way ahead.
Matthew Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
Our Heritage
Okay, let them build a new hospital but leave the N&N alone. It belongs to Norwich; it's part of our heritage.
Ms Zucchi asked what actor Richard Wilson knew about the health needs of the county.
He, like everyone else, has to pay national insurance and taxes which keep the NHS going and which, in turn, pays Ms Zucchi, Mr Stamp etc..
Mr Wilson has every right to try to save our hospitals. I only wish more people had the guts to do the same - before it is too late.
DS Guyton
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
Let Them Know How You Feel
People in power and position never cease to amaze me.
Most people in and around Norwich are totally opposed to plans to move our hospital outside the city, yet the future of our healthcare and our children's healthcare rests in the hands of people most of us have never heard of.
At 6pm on Monday, June 24th, at South Norfolk Council's offices in Long Stratton, councillors we have never heard of could decide the future of our healthcare with a huge loss of beds.
I urge anyone who cares enough to be outside this meeting to make our feelings known.
David Kett
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 21st June 1996
Hospital is Part of Our City
If I was ever asked should the N&N Hospital be moved to Colney, my answer would be adefinite NO.
The N&N is a part of the city, much the same as Caley's, Boulton & Paul, Read's and a host of shoe factories which have long since gone but are not forgotten.
The hospital is where it should be, where the people are - it is easy to get to in times of trouble.
Why was so much money spent on modernising the West Norwich Hospital laundry with new machinery only to have it all removed a few short years later? It does not make sense to me, it simply doesn't add up.
I happen to be somebody who cares a little about what is happening to this city of ours, and I don't like what I'm seeing. And no doubt I'm not alone.
Dianne Arthur
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd July 1996
Decision May be Regretted
I predict that even South Norfolk councillors may one day come to regret their planning decision, should the Colney Hospital ever be built.
But not while they remain in the 1970s. Sustainability hasn't been invented yet. City centres are those grimy places where all the less fortunate people live.
At a distance, they can safely cast aside the concern of hundreds who put pen to paper objecting to thescheme.
Thankfully, in this city we have leaders who care about the future and are prepared to heed the lessons from the past.
Norwich City Council can be confident of massive support for any move to challenge the hospital decision through a judicial review.
Matthew Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd July 1996
Victory for Those Faceless Wonders
So the deed is done - bar the shouting - despite the protests of the popullation of Norwich and the surrounding areas.
Once again the faceless wonders who dictate our destinies have won.
The people who count are ignored and who cares; our once fine city is rapidly becomimg a thing of the past.
Why close a good and recently updated hospital, with a great reputation, to create something we can do without?
Mrs P Pusey
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 3rd July 1996
U-Turn Over Hospital Site
You reported (4/7/96) that the Norwich City Council Labour Group is seeking legal advice over a possible challenge to South Norfolk council's decision to grant planning permission for the Colney hospital.
While I have no wish to interfere in how another council spends taxpayers' money, I was surprised by the reasons given for this move.
The complaint is that we gave the city council only three minutes to speak, and that the impact of the proposals had not been fully considered.
I have several points to make about these complaints.
First, the committee had before it a 42 page report discussing the planning issues and giving details of the letters of objection and support from organisations and individuals. This report had been the subject of legal review by London Counsel.
Secondly, councillors had received and read many letters of objection in advance of the meeting, including the lengthy report compiled by Norwich City Council.
Thirdly, I believe that South Norfolk is the only planning authority in East Anglia to have introduced a full public speaking system, allowing people direct access to the committee at the point of decision making. I understand that Norwich City Council does not allow public speaking at its planning committee meetings.
Fourthly objectors were allowed 75 minutes in total to present their case and everyone who wished to put arguments against the proposal was allowed to do so. (Norwich City Council were taken early to allow Councillor Swainson to leave for another meeting. He did not thwerefore hear the whole debate). Supporters were then given equal time to present their case.
Finally, the committee debated the points for well over an hour. The meeting lasted five hours in total.
The committee took two free votes, thus allowing individual councillors to reach their own decision on the application, rather than being constrained by party politics.
Therefore I cannot agree that the proposals were not fully and fairly considered or that people were not given full opportunities to put their view to the committee.
I would also point out that in a letter to the health authority in May 1992, Norwich City Council "reluctantly accepted" that no suitable location was available within the city for a new single site hospital, and that redevelopment of the existing Norfolk & Norwich site would not be possible because of "substantial detriment to the local environment, including the conservation area and surrounding residential areas", the increased traffici generation and "its very serious detrimental effect on the strategic road network" and "the impact on patients and staff during a long construction period".
Similar views were expressed in a Norwich Labour Party leaflet published as recently as March 1996: "If Colney were stopped now it would take five years to reach the stage that rebuilding could start on an alternative site.
"It is not in the interests of Norwich people towaste more time and atke the risk of losing a new hospital altogether."
What we have seen since then is a clear U-turn and reversal of all previous arguments.
Having been involved in one major public inquiry in which two councils fought each other at great public expense, I do hope that we can avoid this situation again, with all the legal costs that would involve for the taxpayer.
Dr Murray Gray
South Norfolk Council
Eastern Daily Press 10th July 1996
Shimmering Cars
B.Moore from Old Catton wishes to see the N&N Hospital moved to Colney as he or she finds it difficult to drive and park at the present site. Mrs McGinn wishes to see big picture windows from which to watch rabbits and squirrels at play. Peter Scott is concerned about the loss of wildlife habitats.
The hospital at Colney will submerge sixty four acres of Norfolk countryside in concrete and asphalt to make the largest carpark in the county. The views from the windows will be of shimmering parked cars. The bottle necks at Earlham and Colney will make it just as difficult for drivers.
Is inner city traffic congestion really solved by moving it elsewhere?
Dr GM Clayton
Colney
Eastern Evening News 12th July 1996
Possible Hospital Challenge to be Applauded
I feel sure that many hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Norwich & Norfolk will applaud Norwich City Council's possible challenge to the closure of our city hospitals and the relocation of their health services to the green field site at Colney.
A city without its own central hospital service would be like a body deprived of one of its main organs of survival.
We are constantly being informed that we live in a society of increasing numbers of old people.
To place our hospitals so far outside the city will not only cause difficulties to the old - many of whom do not have a car, or because of declining health cannot drive - but what of the young mothers taking sick children to out-patients with other youngsters in tow?
Readers can imagine both young and old waiting for buses in the rain, traffic hold-ups in the snows of a winter like the one we last experienced, irritation and fatigue adding to the discomfort of both sick and those travelling with them.
I agree fully with Julian Swainson, chairman of the city council's planning committee that: "The impact of the proposals to relocate our hospitals has not been fully considered."
It is to be hoped that our city council will succeed in achieving a legal case against the Colney site and that they will win such a case on humanitarian, social, and environmental grounds.
Desmond Davies
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 15th July 1996
I'm Bemused Every Time I Visit Hospital
Can Malcolm Stamp say why many thousands of pounds are being spent on the N&N Hospital when it is to be abandoned in four years time?
Corridors have been recovered, the out-patients department completely refurbished, the refreshment area recarpeted, new tables and chairs all nicely screened.
There is a new cardiac department beside the new information and enquiry offices, some very nice conservatory style waiting areas built opposite the blood testing department.
When I visited the hospital two weeks ago work was still going on, which seems to prove the N&N can be updated.
Some of the wards need work to be done but they can be refurbished.
If the new hospital is to be privately funded, what is going to become of all the very expensive equipment provided by the various charities, ie Red Cross, Big C and many other bodies, and private individuals who have raised money and bought equipment in memory of a loved one giving loving care and attention by staff, doctors, nurses, at the hospital.
The prospect of reaching Colney by bus id daunting.
Our bus company is not the most efficient. Keeping appointments at Colney would become quite a problem. Not everyone has a car.
I, and many other people wonder what is going on at the N&N. It seems the only thing left to be addressed is the parking, and with the Nestle site becomimg vacant shortly it seems a golden opportunity to redevelop that.
Each time I visit the N&N I become more bemused.
Let the hospital stay in the city.
Mrs Elsie Parnell
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 9th August 1996
Time to Come Clean Over Bed Numbers
It would be nice if the East Norfolk Health Authority and the Health Care NHS Trust came clean about bed numbers at the proposed Colney hospital.
The recent admission that bed numbers were still being looked at is either a sign of flexibility, or just a shambles. People want to know whether there really will be enough space or whether patients will have to travel to Gorleston, Bury St Edmunds or Kings Lynn for their treatment.
If it is true that the planned hospital is to be expanded beyond 701 beds, can we look forward to a revised planning application and the need to consider even more road widening?
No, it seems more likely that the Trust will simply decide to put more beds into the same floor area to save money. Exactly the same thing happened during the planning of the new Carlisle hospital by a PFI consortium, and this has been described as "more like a doss house" by the hospital's own doctors.
At Carlisle, beds were to be squeezed into small wards and the number of lavatories reduced to ensure the developers made their profit.
Is this what we can eventually expect at Colney - beds in corridors, or even bunk beds perhaps?
Matthew Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 31st August 1996
Colney: a Major Rethink Needed
Reacting to your article "Hospital hold-up" it has to be said that the Government's own right wing think tank, the Adam smith Institute, has questioned the PFI as an "extravagance".
The hospital in Colney, approved by Labour, Tory and Liberals alike, is part of a move to take a large chunk (30) of currently centrally funded infrastructure improvements and places them at the mercy of multiple shareholders, interested only in a fast return of their investment and furthering profit margins.
Not in after-care, geriatric medicine or a high patient to nurse ratio, so essential for rehbilitation.
Against strong local opposition, disregarding PPG6 and 13, which state to keep major hospitals in city centres, this so-called flagship development is a pie for Tory investors, with extra cream in the form of further development at Costessey, Hethersett and Colney to follow.
NHS Healthcare, paid for by the taxpayers to private companies, lets thoughts of "a license to print money" spring to mind.
Lets have a closer look at this hospital. Who is it catering for?
Does it provide expert, often lengthy care for Norfolk's rising elderly population?
No, it doesn't!.
Will it replace the N&N's 1,200 beds?
No it will not.
Is it easy to get to for everyone? No, only for those with cars.
The highly speculative financing of this key project, which will reap economic disaster for some in the city centre, is more akin to a dog's dinner, with bits of cycle provisions and short term bus transport agreements added to the planning application at the last minute.
We must applaud the continuing pressure from the "Keep Our Hospital in Norwich" campaign and will actively support any further steps it should take.
Even at this late hour we propose a major rethink.
Ingo Wagenknecht
Green Party
Eastern Evening News 5th September 1996
Hospital Scheme Signing Such Coincidence
What a coincidence that the privately funded deal to build the Colney hospital was signed the day before Budget Day, allowing the Chancellor to make mention of it in his speech!
All contracts have their provisos and conditions, but you have to wonder haow big are the gaps left in the agreement in the scramble to get it announced in time.
Of course, we are not allowed to know because the details are "commercially sensitive", even though Mr Stamp originally promised we would be given more information at this stage.
What we have been told is that the banks have yet to put the money in place to fund this dubious project.
It may not be the Channel Tunnel, but there is plenty of scope for a financial abyss to appear down Colney Lane.
Matthew Williams
Norwich
Eastern Evening News 5th December 1996