Proposal Drawings for Arthur Clark Site

For those unable to go to yesterday's public viewing of A2 Dominion's proposal to build 44 apartments for the over 55s I've got permission to publish the indicative drawings here.

Please note that A2 Dominion is consulting the public at the moment and is yet to submit a planning application to Reading Borough Council (RBC).

As regular readers of my website will know, I sit on RBC's Planning Committee and therefore keep an open mind to avoid the risk of predetermining planning applications.

Yesterday I provided a little more information about this particular proposal so please refer to my last post.  Thank you.

Arthur Clark Care Home Site to be Leased

Arthur Clark Care Home before closure

Tonight, Reading Borough Council's Policy Committee is being asked to agree to the leasing off of the old Arthur Clark Care Home & Albert Road Day Centre site to A2Dominion Housing for the development of an extra care housing scheme.

The Labour administration has been desperate to crack on with enabling the disused site to provide for the needs of older people in order to redeem its deeply unpopular decision back in July 2013 - opposed by Rob Wilson MP and the Conservative Group - to close the much loved local facilities.  Thousands signed a petition against the closure to no avail.

You can read the report going to the Policy Committee tonight here.

Conservatives condemn Labour's decision to close Arthur Clark Care Home

Arthur Clark Residential Care Home

Conservatives turned out in force for last night’s first ever meeting of the Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, and Education Committee in support of campaigners who packed the public gallery. As well as Sandra Vickers (Tilehurst), James Anderson (Kentwood) and me who sit on the committee, Cllrs Tim Harris (Church), Jeanette Skeats (Thames), David Stevens (Thames), Ed Hopper (Thames) and Richard Willis (Peppard) sat in the public gallery behind them with Reading East MP Rob Wilson. Cllr Hopper and Rob Wilson addressed the meeting as members of the public after passionate speeches from campaigner Colin Trinder and Rev Marion Pyke.

It was notable that neither Cllr Richard Davies (Caversham-Labour), or Labour’s Reading East Parliamentary Candidate spoke or even bothered to attend the meeting.

After over an hour and a half of questions, speeches and debate Labour’s Lead Councillor circulated a pre-prepared amended motion which made it clear that the decision to close both the Arthur Clark home and Albert Road Day Centre had already effectively been taken. I picked this up and pointed out that since the motion had been printed prior to the meeting the whole debate had been a waste of time as the Labour Group had already decided to close the two facilities.

Cllr Sandra Vickers spoke about how her own mother had visited Arthur Clark and told how she loved the home and the quality of care provided. Cllr James Anderson urged the Labour administration to consider this a matter for their hearts rather than their heads.

However, at the end of the debate, the Labour Councillors on the Committee voted for the motion to close Arthur Clark Home and Albert Road Day Centre. All other Councillors (apart from the Chairman who abstained) voted against the closure motion.

Cllr Ed Hopper said, “I am hugely disappointed by the decision to close the Arthur Clark Care Home which has been taken by Reading Borough Council’s Labour Administration tonight.

Over 3,600 people plus every Conservative Councillor, our MP Rob Wilson and all other opposition Councillors have all expressed their adamant opposition to this closure.

The consultation which RBC has undertaken is not worthy of the name, having ignored genuine opportunities to work with local residents and businesses to seek ways to keep this valuable Home open.”

Cllr Tim Harris said, “Once again the Labour Group has ignored the wishes of the thousands of local people who signed the petition and those who took time out to attend a second Council meeting to discuss the proposed closure. We asked the Labour administration to consider all options including discussions with possible private care providers but they chose to ignore this and the pleas from the public gallery.”

I said, “Labour is quite prepared to spend around £60m on providing new Civic Offices but they refuse to find less than £1m to undertake the maintenance backlog which has been identified at Arthur Clark home. Tonight’s meeting was a waste of time as Labour had already made their decision before the meeting even started. The consultation was a sham, just as the promised consultation on using the site for ‘extra-care’ housing for the elderly will probably prove to be.”  

Speaking after the meeting Conservative Councillors and Rob Wilson MP pledged to help the residents in any way possible to keep up the fight for the future of Arthur Clark home and Albert Road Day Centre.

D-Day for Arthur Clark Care Home

Conservatives at the Reading Borough Council meeting on Tuesday stood alongside local residents to call for the Labour administration to scrap plans to close the Arthur Clark care home in Albert Road, Caversham. Residents protested outside the Council chamber before the meeting and packed the meeting to present a petition and ask questions of the Labour Lead Councillor.

Cllr Ed Hopper with protestors before Council

Due to the large number of signatures on the petition a debate was generated at the start of the Council meeting. The Labour administration moved a weasel worded motion referring the concerns of the petitioners to the Council’s new Adult Social Care, Childrens’ Services and Education Committee which meets on Monday 1^st July.

Thames Ward Councillors Ed Hopper and David Stevens then moved and seconded an amendment which called on the administration to “cease all attempts to close Arthur Clark care home”. This was supported by all Councillors except for the Labour administration. Even the single Caversham Labour Councillor and Labour’s Reading East Parliamentary candidate voted against the amendment!

After lengthy debate, Labour voted down the Conservative amendment and used their majority to push through their motion.

Cllr Ed Hopper said, “I wanted to give the Council as a whole an opportunity to say that the Arthur Clark home should remain open rather than see the decision pushed off to a committee of which only a few Councillors are members. I was pleased that so many Councillors supported my amendment but disappointed that Labour used their majority to override the views of others Councillors and the large number of residents in the gallery”.

Cllr David Stevens said, “This is the first time ever that the public has presented a petition with enough signatures to trigger a debate. I am amazed therefore that the Labour Group was not willing to listen to the strength of feeling locally and invest in this care home rather than just close it down. We will keep up the fight to ensure that the views of local people are heard and heeded.”

At the end of the evening after the presentation of the petition, exhaustive debate, and numerous questions Cllr Ralph (Independent) moved a motion which many had expected him to withdraw. It was rather after the fact, as the Labour administration had made their position clear in the earlier debate, but in the spirit of cooperation Conservative Councillors had decided to support Cllr Ralph’s motion and voted against Labour’s inevitable amendment. In the most bizarre moment of the night Cllr Ralph then voted in favour of Labour’s amendment and against his own motion!

Conservative Group Leader Cllr Tim Harris said, “It was a long and heated debate but what matters in this is the effect closure would have on the many elderly residents and the removal of a facility which should be retained to serve future generations north of the Thames. Conservative Councillors will be using every available opportunity to urge the Labour administration to think again and fight for a future for this much loved home.”

You can watch the council meeting online on YouTube and see for yourself 'democracy' in action.

D-Day for the Arthur Clark care home is Monday, 1st July at 6.30 pm.  Members of the public are encouraged to attend and, if they give advance notification of their intention to film proceedings are permitted to do so.

Update  You can read GetReading's report in today's paper here.  If you have a view on the future of the Arthur Clark residential care home why don't you post a comment?

A Question of Dignity

At Monday's Cabinet meeting I spoke on the Developments in Adult Social Care report.

First I commended the Conservative-led government for being the first to bring in a cap to the amount any individual will have to pay towards their residential care.  The limit of £75,000 will help many, many individuals and families here in Reading as well as across the country, by preventing them from having to sell off their own home to pay for their residential care when they are most vulnerable.

The announcement of the cap, made earlier this month, can be read here.

Then I moved on to speak about the Dignity in Care launch event, which my colleague Cllr Jane Stanford-Beale and I attended on 22 January.

click on the above to enlarge

Organisations signed up to the Dignity Charter [see right - click to enlarge].  As you can see, it highlights common-sense but ever so important ways for professionals to treat the town's frail and vulnerable with the dignity they deserve.  [The Dignity Charter is in line with the government's Think Local Act Personal vision].

At Cabinet I said that it would do no harm for this to be extended to include treating everybody with dignity and respect!  I alluded that in just the last few weeks some Labour councillors have written disparaging remarks about officers: I commented that this is unprofessional and disrespectful, especially bearing in mind officers are in a very difficult position to answer back.

I expressed my hope to the Chair that she would agree her administration needs to set an example fit for all to follow.  Sadly, she didn't.

I was very disappointed with her and her Cabinet colleagues' reaction as it undermines the important work officers like Suzanne Westhead and her team have been putting in to improving care, raising awareness and getting service providers to demonstrate their genuine commitment to delivering a high standard of care with dignity at the heart of their respective services.

More details about Dignity in Care are on RBC's website here including a resource pack, monitoring procedures and training.

Peter Henley, BBC Political Editor South of England, was at the launch event and wrote this.

Future of Residential & Day Care in Caversham Heights

Arthur Clark Residential Home

At last night's Cabinet meeting the future of residential & day care in Caversham Heights was discussed.

The Arthur Clark Residential Care Home, which provides care for 24 residents plus 2 respite care beds is in need of £1 million improvements/refurbishment if it is to be brought up to modern standards.

Albert Rd Day Centre

The adjacent Albert Road Day Care Centre has a capacity of 20 - though currently a daily average of 13 clients. As it shares services with Arthur Clark, for the Centre to continue as a single entity officers estimate £400,000 would be needed to bring it up to a decent building standard.  It gives carers a life-line by providing them with a break from their important role.

The Director, Avril Wilson's report sets out the necessity to either temporarily close both buildings to carry out extensive refurbishment to bring them up to the new standards: or permanently close them both.

On behalf of the Conservative Group I said that any proposed closure needed to be handled incredibly carefully and sensitively, but even more so places like these where there are vulnerable, elderly residents.  Much has been learnt over the years here in Reading since the heartache caused by the closure process in 2002 of Wilton House and I said that I'd been reassured by my briefing with Avril Wilson last week as officers are very much aware of the issues at stake.

I raised the fact that moving frail elderly individuals can have a dramatic affect on their health so only when it is absolutely essential should this be done.  I acknowledged that a difficult decision has to be made in this instance and pledged my Group's support to help work this through.

The Conservative Group naturally would like Reading's residents to have excellent care and accommodation and noted that the private sector provides better accommodation at a reduced cost.

I asked that if the Labour administration decides on closure, that they put the utmost effort into:

• Keeping residents, loved ones and staff fully informed and up-to-date
• Keeping friend groups of residents together
• Keeping residents close by and accessible to loved ones
• Optimising the closure timing to minimise disruption to residents; and
• Work with the local ward councillors and respective shadow spokesmen

Labour was grateful for the cross-party support and agreed the report's recommendation to go out to consultation, the results of which are expected in the summer.  You can read the full report here.

By the way, last week I'd asked Avril Wilson what the policy was about admitting residents into Arthur Clark and was pleased to hear officers had decided not to allow any new admissions whilst the consultation was taking place.  This is sensible - much better to put residents elsewhere until there is certainty over the future.  I asked if there was capacity elsewhere in Reading: the answer was yes.