Press release from Fabian Richter, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Bath - 15 th August, 2008:

Following the announcement that the Primary Care Trust for Bath and North East Somerset will launch a review of local gynaecological cancer services, Fabian Richter commented:  

"I congratulate the PCT on promising an open and transparent review of gynaecological cancer services. This is a direct response to what the over 4,000 local signatories to my RUH petition have been demanding. Unless the PCT can demonstrate significantly superior medical results or massive savings, gynae cancer operations should stay at our RUH in Bath. Seriously ill patients should not be forced on the long journey to Bristol for no good reason other than a bureaucratic dictat from Whitehall."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Fabian Richter and Bath Conservatives ran a petition attracting 4,000 signatories to save cancer services at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The text of the petition urges the BANES PCT not to move cancer operations for gynaecological and possibly head & neck cancer from the RUH in Bath to Bristol. The petition argues that there is currently no evidence that this would either free up substantial financial resources which could be redeployed into better cancer services. Equally, there is no evidence that this specific move from Bath to Bristol would significantly improve clinical outcomes for cancer operations.

However, this does not just affect patients from Bath, as the RUH has a catchment area of 500,000 people, stretching from Bath and North East Somerset all the way to West Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire and other parts of Somerset such as Frome.

Fabian launched his petition following a vote of the Oversight & Scrutiny Committee of Bath & North East Somerset Council forcing the PCT to hold a public consultation on its plans to move cancer services.

Stamp duty for residents in Bath has grown nearly ten-fold for some properties - 23rd June 2008

Today, Fabian Richter was briefed in Parliament by Eric Pickles, Shadow Secretary of State for the Communities and Local Government, on new figures he has obtained from parliamentary questions which show that the cost of stamp duty for residents in Bath has grown nearly ten-fold for some properties.

Commenting on these new figures, prospective MP for Fabian Richter said: "If you want to buy an average family home in Bath, you will now pay a staggering 1,065% more stamp duty than in 1997. It is difficult enough to afford property in our city, and such high stamp duties will simply discourage families from moving. This will in turn reinforce existing concerns about the housing market, and there is a danger of a vicious circle at work here."

Shadow Secretary of State for the Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles MP added: "Fabian has identified the key issue here. That is why I have been calling for measures to help Britain's fragile housing market. We want to abolish the new red tape of Home Information Packs and cut stamp duty for first time buyers because they are hardest hit by the current credit crunch."

A petition signed by 300 people has persuaded bus company First to run a service to Weston later into the afternoon.

Campaigning by two local councillors has extended the time of the last 20A and 20C service from the city centre to Weston from 2.30pm.

The petition was organised by councillors Colin Barrett and Malcolm Lees (both Con, Weston) together with Conservative Parliamentary candidate for the city, Fabian Richter.

From June 30, buses will run to Lucklands Road, Purlewent Drive and Trafalgar Road until 3.30pm Monday to Friday.

Cllr Barrett said: "I am extremely pleased at the great success of our petition to improve the bus links for the residents of Weston.

"The last number 20A and 20C bus service to this area leaves the centre at just 2.30pm, particularly affecting elderly residents who rely on a good bus service for their shopping journeys.

"This extra service will allow more people to use the buses.

"It will also be more convenient for residents, who will get a greater choice of journey times."

Justin Davies, managing director of First Bristol, Somerset and Avon, said he was happy to help.

"We are always pleased to receive comments about how we can improve our bus services.

"We are not always able to do everything our customers want.

"I am happy that in this case we are able to implement this improvement.

"We will be monitoring this route in the future to observe passenger usage."

Press release from Maria Miller MP, Shadow Minister for the Family, and Fabian Richter, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Bath - 2 nd June, 2008:

On Monday, 2 nd June 2008, Maria Miller MP, Fabian Richter and Cllr Chris Watt will visit Oldfield Park Junior School in Bath who run the innovative 'PlayPod' project, a collaboration between Bath & North East Somerset Council and Bristol-based charity Children's Scrap Store.

On their visit to the school Fabian Richter commented: "Learning is not just about sitting at a desk reading and writing - physical exploration of the material world is at least as important. Play Pod provide a great environment for children to do that. That is why I have invited Maria to Bath to learn more about this innovative project."

Maria Miller MP added: "Seeing local schools working with voluntary organisations is very exciting. I have seen first hand how children benefit from this pioneering project here in Bath."

Cllr Chris Watt, BANES Cabinet Member for Children's Services, said: "[tbc]"

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Maria Miller MP and Fabian Richter will be visiting Oldfield Park Junior School between 11.30am and 12.30pm on Monday, 2 nd June. Children will join them at 12 noon which will provide the best photo opportunity.

The Children's Scrapstore is a Bristol-based charity that collects safe waste from business which can re-used as a low cost creative resource for its member groups. They store the resources in their scrap warehouse in Bristol and their member groups collect all the resources they need and take it back to their groups. The scrap warehouse stocks all sorts of things people need for creative play such as paper and card, foam, plastic pots, tubes and tubs, netting, fabric, books, CDs and all manner of off cuts and left overs from business. All the stock is low cost. Membership is open to groups working in creative play, care, educational and therapeutic settings. The Children's Scrapstore also run a rural outreach project in B&NES and North Somerset where they turn venues into a Scrapstore for the day and provide free art training.

Play Pod is one project provided by The Scrapstore. Play Pod provides junior schools with a container (the 'pod') full of materials and equipment that can stimulate, facilitate and enhance children's play in the school playground (see separate briefing).

The Scrapstore can be contacted on 0117 908 5644 for general enquiries. The Play Pod Manager is Kirstie Wilson who can be reached on 0117 914 3002 or playpods@childrensscrapstore.co.uk

Commenting on the fact that 268 people who have died at the RUH between 2002 and 2006 had been infected with the superbug clostridium difficile - the highest number of people at any hospital in the country - Fabian Richter said:

"This is a terrible record, but again critics of the RUH like Lord Mancroft have got it all wrong. We should not blame the RUH's doctors and nurses whose professional standards are proven in excellent clinical outcomes. The blame for deaths from superbugs lies squarely with Gordon Brown's NHS targets for bed occupancy. The RUH has one of the highest occupancy rates in the whole of England and the highest death rate from superbugs - the link is obvious. But if RUH managers squeezed fewer people into beds to save lives, they would get sacked by Labour's Health Secretary for missing their targets - it is utter madness."

ENDS

Notes to editors - background information about the link between bed occupancy and infections in hospitals:

In 2006, confidential Department of Health documents leaked to the Independent newspaper confirmed that there is a direct link between bed occupancy and likelihood of contracting MRSA. The report showed that reducing bed occupancy in all NHS Trusts to a maximum of 85% would save 1,000 cases of MRSA each year. Levels above 85% occupancy are considered unsafe. ( Leaked document from DH, published in the Independent, 24 July 2006. Available at: http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article1193103.ece )

Figures published by the Department of Health last month show that for the year 2006-07 the RUH has one of the highest bed occupancies in the whole of England. Total occupancy stands at 94.5%. Only 15 hospital trusts have a higher occupancy rate, while 206 have a lower rate than the RUH. These include hospitals in much bigger urban areas such as Sheffield (61.5% occupancy), Liverpool (62.9%) and Birmingham (72.9%). Geriatric care at the RUH has the highest bed occupancy rate, a breathtaking 97.4%. That means that fewer than one in 20 beds is either unoccupied or being cleaned at any one point in time.

According to Professor Barry Cookson from the Health Protection Agency, bed occupancy rates above 85% are considered unsafe if superbugs are to be tackled successfully. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3857673.stm ). He said: " Patients should realise that there's a certain safety level, and above that we start having problems."

29th April 2008

Today, Fabian Richter and Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones (Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Chippenham) were briefed by Andrew Griffith, regional manager of First Great Western about the impact of rebuilding Reading Station next year on train passengers into London. After the meeting, Fabian commented:

"Like many people in Bath, I use the train to get into London for work every week, and Reading remains a terrible bottleneck for commuters. Boosting capacity in Reading is therefore a good thing, but we need rigorous plans to ensure disruption to services is minimised. I was encouraged to hear First Great Western are working on such plans and will carefully study them when published in summer."

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones added:

"Travelling to London by rail for my constituency has been a nightmare and I hope that First Great Western recognises that they have a lot of lost ground to make up. It is vital that they win back the confidence of travellers and that they put into place a plan that is going to mean that inconvenience to passengers is kept to a minimum.   I shall be keeping a close eye on developments and demand that they put customers first."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

You can contact Andrew Griffith from First Great Western for his comments on the meeting and the rebuilding of Reading Station on 07740-812949.

The Network Rail business plan for rebuilding Reading Station can be found here:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/3111_route%2013%20great%20western%20main%20line.pdf

The project is currently scheduled to start in 2009 and to be fully completed by 2013.

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13th March 2008
On Friday, 13 th March, 2008, Fabian Richter addressed the Conservative Party Spring Forum in Newcastle on the issue of entrepreneurship in Bath. In his speech, he said:

"With its excellent research record in science and engineering, the University of Bath has fostered over 50 spin-out and start-up companies, all creating high skill jobs for the area. But this achievement is under threat from Gordon Brown's misguided policies. Many start-ups in Bath never take off because they are not getting the early stage support they need. Others do take off, but then battle with Labour's R&D tax credits. I have spoken to companies in the Bath area who have waited for 18 months to receive their tax credits - that's almost as long as many of these company have been around for! Bureaucratic delays like that kill many start-ups."

Responding, David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said: "Fabian has identified an important issue. We definitely need to remove some of the obstacles university spin-out companies face."

Bath University Vice Chancellor, Professor Glynis Breakwell, added: "It is important that government policies should facilitate the enormous economic generative power of our universities. Much has been done but there is much more to be done."

ENDS

Notes to editors:
The Spring Forum is the annual spring conference of the Conservative Party. Fabian Richter spoke in the debate about "Building Economic Competitiveness" which was chaired by Alan Duncan MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Over the past 10 years, the University of Bath has created 10 technology spin-out companies, based on its world-class research. Two of these have been floated (Vectura and Ingenta, now Publishing Technology), and another two have been acquired by international companies.

In addition, Bath University runs the Carpenter House Innovation Centre has incubated on average 8 companies per year since its inception five years' ago. Together, these companies employ more than 150 highly skilled staff and have introduced more than 29 new technologies to the market. Bath University estimates that their contribution to the local economy has been in the range of £10 million.

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4th March 2008
Commenting on forthcoming House of Commons vote on whether to have a referendum on the new EU Treaty, Fabian Richter said:

"I very much hope Don Foster will join Frome MP David Heath and other Liberal Democrat MPs by voting in favour of giving the British people a say on the European Constitution. That is what he promised when getting elected in 2005, and people in Bath expect him to honour that manifesto promise. Otherwise, even committed Lib Dem voters would desert their party as a new ICM poll has shown, so this is clearly not a question of being pro- or anti-European. It is just a matter of sticking to your promises and giving people a vote."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

On Wednesday, 5 th March, MPs will vote on amendments calling for a referendum on the new EU Reform Treaty. Labour the Liberal Democrats are against a referendum, arguing the Treaty is different from the previously proposed European Constitution. However, the all-party European Scrutiny Committee has argued that "taken as a whole, the Reform Treaty produces a general framework which is substantially equivalent to the Constitutional Treaty." (Thirty-Fifth Report, 2006-07, p.16).

In their 2005 general election manifesto, the Liberal Democrats support the European Constitution, but argue that "ratification must be subject to a referendum of the British people." (The Real Alternative: Liberal Democrat Manifesto Text 2005, p.27).

In 2003, Nick Clegg (then an MEP, now leader of the Liberal Democrats) argued in favour of a referendum on the Constitution, saying " "The real reason, of course, why the government does not want to hold a referendum is the fear that it may lose ... Nothing will do more damage to the pro-European movement than giving room to the suspicion that we have something to hide, that we do not have the 'cojones' to carry out our argument to the people." (The Guardian, 15 th October, 2003)

One of Don Foster' s neighbouring MPs, Liberal Democrat David Heath, plans to vote in favour of a referendum on the Constitution together with a number of other Lib Dem MPs including Health Spokesperson Sandra Gidley who said: " This is important because, at the last election, many MPs (myself included) stood on a platform of promising a referendum on the EU constitution. It may surprise you to know that some of us like to keep our promises." (The Daily Echo, 24 th January, 2008).

A new ICM poll shows 32% of Liberal Democrat voters would desert the party if it broke its manifesto pledge to support a referendum on the EU Treaty. (http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/pdfs/2008_open_europe_libdems_poll.pdf)

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29th February 2008
Reflecting on comments from Lord Mancroft about the cleanliness of nurses at the RUH

Fabian Richter said:

"Lord Mancroft is not an elected politician and his views are not those of the Conservative Party in Bath. All nurses and doctors I have met at the RUH are highly professional and dedicated. Instead of making inappropriate comments about their private lives, Lord Mancroft would have done better to highlight how Gordon Brown's target culture for the NHS forces the RUH to keep bed occupancy at dangerously high levels. That is the real reason for the current infection problems, and to blame the RUH's excellent staff is both unfair and missing the point."

ENDS

Notes to editors - background information about the link between bed occupancy and infections in hospitals:

In 2006, confidential Department of Health documents leaked to the Independent newspaper confirmed that there is a direct link between bed occupancy and likelihood of contracting MRSA. The report showed that reducing bed occupancy in all NHS Trusts to a maximum of 85% would save 1,000 cases of MRSA each year. Levels above 85% occupancy are considered unsafe. ( Leaked document from DH, published in the Independent, 24 July 2006. Available at: http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article1193103.ece )

Figures published by the Department of Health last month show that for the year 2006-07 the RUH has one of the highest bed occupancies in the whole of England. Total occupancy stands at 94.5%. Only 15 hospital trusts have a higher occupancy rate, while 206 have a lower rate than the RUH. These include hospitals in much bigger urban areas such as Sheffield (61.5% occupancy), Liverpool (62.9%) and Birmingham (72.9%). Geriatric care at the RUH has the highest bed occupancy rate, a breathtaking 97.4%. That means that fewer than one in 20 beds is either unoccupied or being cleaned at any one point in time.

According to Professor Barry Cookson from the Health Protection Agency, bed occupancy rates above 85% are considered unsafe if superbugs are to be tackled successfully. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3857673.stm ). He said: " Patients should realise that there's a certain safety level, and above that we start having problems."

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