Memorandum submitted by Elizabeth Newman (CBPS 42)

My name is Elizabeth Newman, of Castle Hill House, Kington,  Herefordshire.

I live in Kington in Herefordshire, a very small Market Town, in Herefordshire and just under 2 miles from the Welsh Border. Locally I am a Town Councillor, the Vice Chairman of the Herefordshire Association of Local Councils and also a Board Member of the West Midlands Regional Assembly, but I submit this evidence as an individual.

I became aware only last week of this Select Committee's present work on Cross Border Public Services. 

Our Town has half its social and economic hinterland in Powys, these are people who use local Services in Kington, shop here, socialise here, and use the Doctor's Practice here.  In the past it has proved to be very difficult to co-ordinate grant aid and social issues because of the different sets of rules with Development Agencies and other bodies each side of the Border and consequently border communities regularly lose out.  There are many examples of that.

There needs to be a flexibility with the Development Agencies, and other funding bodies when project funding limits itself to Wales or England as the border communities find themselves frequently disadvantaged when agreement on projects and initiatives which need to cross the border to be effective are caught up in red tape and prove to be impossible to progress as there seems to be no permeability of Offa's Dyke on these matters.

A recent and most welcome cross border initiative, begun in Kington and now developing further along the border is the working together of the local Police in West Mercia and Dyfed Powys who are stationed along the border communities. This means the nearest available Officer attends an incident, or both forces work together on a larger incident close to the border area.

This is welcome and is saving time and effort, and undoubtedly when a Road Traffic Accident is involved, it is saving life and further accidents. 

This type of arrangement needs to also work with ambulances and first responders in a cross border co-operation. I believe there is an informal arrangement, but this needs to be formalised and its continuance ensured when the West Midlands Ambulance Trust has a its new central call centre fully operational.  This is a concern to border residents.

Regular meetings of Health Service professionals and users from both sides of the Border would assist in identifying where Health Authorities and other Services can work together to give a better service to the communities who are isolated from major centres of population in their locations along the Welsh Border. I would request that the Select Committee investigate this possibility.

The future of Knighton Hospital is of concern to communities on both side of the Welsh Border who use its facilities. 

The local doctors' practices have patients in both Wales and England, and this can be confusing to people who live in Powys with a Herefordshire address and postcode, who get taken to Hereford Hospital after a 999 call, then moved to a Powys Hospital, with social care for elderly coming via Powys County Council and Health Authorities, who travel many miles to visit patients on the border when there are Herefordshire facilities nearer. This happened to my elderly in laws who live in Powys as the border runs along their garden edge. It confused them a lot.

The issue of Radiotherapy being made available in Hereford for patients from both side of the Border is a  very high profile concern at present. Patients from Herefordshire and Mid Wales, as far away as Llanidloes have to travel to Cheltenham Hospital for radiotherapy, as I did, only a 125 mile round trip for me, but twice that for some people from Mid Wales on 3 days a week.

Chemotherapy will soon be available in Hereford for cancer patients, and there is a Campaign to also bring radiotherapy to Hereford to stop these very long journeys which many people do not continue with after a few treatments, or do not wish to go again if the cancer returns.

Provision of an important facility like this in Hereford, will benefit cancer patients from Mid Wales as well as those in Herefordshire, and I would request that the Welsh Affairs Select Committee take evidence from the person from Kington who is leading this campaign, Allan Lloyd to hear the vast amount of evidence he has gathered from across Mid Wales in support of this.

There is presently an initiative developing from the Memorandum of Understanding between the West Midlands Regional Assembly and the Welsh Assembly to bring about regular dialogue between Town and Parish Councils located along the borders of Herefordshire and Shropshire. This will be a way of taking information to a grass roots level, and also a way that the border communities can exchange views, experiences and identify problems which arise from location along a National border. 

I believe that there is still a place for someone to come along to give evidence to the Select Committee on the Cross Border Heath Issues, and would ask that consideration is given to this being someone who lives in a border community and experiences the difficulties on a day to day basis as an individual or a health professional. The people who live along the border are the people who know what it is like and where improvements or changes might be made to make life easier for border communities.

20 March 2008