Ken's visit, Charring Cross Hospital & Putney Hospital ....

Visit by the Mayor of London

At the end of March, I was delighted to join Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, to meet the Roehampton Safer Neighbourhood Team. Ken and I were delighted to follow the Community Police Officers on their rounds. I would like to thank them all for kindly allowing us to join them!

We went to the Base Centre for Connexions and the Youth Inclusion Project, Roehampton based at the Roehampton Boys Club. While we were there, Ken enjoyed a game of pool, and chatted to some of the young people. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, and I would like to send my thanks to all those involved.

Ken also joined me and my campaign team on 19 th April. We walked down the High Street and were delighted to speak with many of you.

Charing Cross Hospital

Some of you may have noticed in the local papers, stories about plans to close Charing Cross Hospital. Many Putney residents have used this hospital and I am keen to dispel these rumours, perpetuated by the Tories.

There are no plans to close the hospital; in fact investment in Charing Cross is set to increase. Labour is investing more money in the NHS than ever before. John Reid, Secretary of State for Health said, “There is no plan at all to close this excellent 3 star hospital. This story is a Tory dirty trick. It’s a real shame a journalist on a quality newspaper fell for it.”

I will certainly continue to follow this issue closely.

Putney Hospital/Putney Primary Care Centre

 I have no idea why this is taking such a long time to resolve. I suggested to the PCT officers last week that they request Wandsworth Council planners to produce a planning brief for the site which would set parameters the PCT would have to meet. The Primary Care Centre needs to go ahead but with all the stakeholders including the local residents, local patients and the Wandsworth planners in agreement. It really cannot be that difficult.

I, as others have done, have suggested negotiations with South Thames College regarding use of the Putney Hill site if the Putney Hospital site finally proves to be impossible for a Primary Care Centre for Putney. We need to get on with the Primary Care Centre for Roehampton alongside Queen Mary’s Hospital - but this seems to be held up by lack of agreement from the GP practices in the area. I have asked the PCT to keep the Primary Care Centre land site available.

As always if you have any queries, please call me at my Campaign office, 0208 788 8961 or write to me at 35 Felsham Road, Putney, SW15 1AY.

Tony Colman MP

April 22, 2005