Wild Flower Walks of Upper Teesdale - Christopher and Gayle Lowe
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Health cash for grit has not been spent
Mar 2, 2010
THOUSANDS of pounds of NHS money pledged to the county council to grit the roads is yet to spent because of a shortage of salt, an MP has claimed.
In November, the County Durham Primary Care Trust granted Durham County Council £1,000,000 to help grit roads and pavements during cold weather.
The decision prompted Kath Toward from Barnard Castle to resign as a governor of the County Durham and Darlington NHS
Foundation Trust’s governing council.
Last week, Roberta Blackman-Woods, MP for the City of Durham, claimed the money has gone unspent because of the national shortage of salt.
“The council has not been able to spend the money from the NHS because the salt has not been available,” Dr Blackman Wood told the Newcastle Journal.
She said salt levels in the county have fallen to “totally inadequate levels” leaving some roads dangerously icy. “The conditions of some roads recently have been so treacherous that I genuinely believe lives are put in danger,” she said.
Mrs Toward, a well-known former upper dale farmer, launched a withering attack on the trust when she stepped down late last year.
Speaking last week, Mrs Toward compared her former colleagues to a popular surrealist comedy group.
“The whole thing is like Monty Python – John Cleese is running the NHS,” she said.
“It was just a waste of money – how many extra people have been saved from falling?”
Mrs Toward, who has been representing patients from Teesdale for 20 years, said the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
“The money could have been spent on falls clinics that are really popular with local doctors,” she said. “It would have made more of a difference. Wouldn’t that have been nice?”
A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said: “In line with agreed costings, Durham County Council has spent £400,000 of the PCT winter maintenance grant.
“As agreed with the PCT the money has been spent on a wide range of improvements including; extending the amount of street and pavement snow clearance across the county, purchasing new machinery to make this job more efficient, and improving our communications with the public on weather forecasts and the pre salted highways network.
“The £1m from the PCT is to be used over two years and the balance will be spent within the timescale and in accordance with the PCT guidelines.”
The NHS move has proved a hit elsewhere however, with Transport Minister Sadiq Khan saying other parts of the country could learn from County Durham.
Answering a question from Central Croydon MP Andrew Pelling in the House of Commons, Mr Khan said: “I would be keen to consider whether the Department of Health and Department for Transport can work better together and whether lessons can be learned from Durham that can be used in London and other parts of the country.”