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Oswestry Equality Group

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This Thursday (24th) we are having a "House meeting".

This is a lot less formal than a meeting at Eastern Oswestry Community Centre, but we still have an agenda (more or less).

This week we will be talking about (amongst other things):

* Research into the payment of the living wage in Oswestry

* Homelessness in Oswestry

* My recent visit to meet Owen Paterson

* A future Hate Crime stall

* "Safe Places"

* Inequality 1914 exhibition

* Our next two meetings

 

Tea / coffee and cake supplied.

 

If you would like to attend, please contact me for more details.

oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

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Our next meeting:

 

Wednesday May 28th. 7.30 at Eastern Oswestry Community Centre

Inequality in Shropshire - Jackie Jeffrey, Manager Citizens Advice Shropshire

 

These facts about Oswestry are worth remembering:

  • Oswestry has an estimated population of 17,105, making it the second biggest town in Shropshire
  • 19% of the population is aged 65 and over. This will have a serious impact on the NHS and care in the future.
  • 22.3 % are employed in retail
  • Average incomes are the lowest in Shropshire
  • Unemployment in 2012 was 5.1% - twice the rate for Shropshire as a whole
  • The former Cambrian, Castle, Carreg Llwyd and Gatacre wards all fall within the 20% most deprived wards in Shropshire.

Some of these facts are not the greatest of reading, but they all come from the Oswestry 2020 document. I suspect that some of them are also relevant to Gobowen, Whittington and the whole area.

 

Jackie is extraordinarily knowledgeable about how austerity is affecting people in Shropshire (and beyond).

This should be a really good meeting. Please try to attend.

 

oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

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A good informative meeting.

Lots of facts, but sadly few answers as to why parts of Oswestry and the surrounding area are still suffering economically.

Thoughts please?

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Weston Rhyn, St. Martins and Gobowen are all classified as "deprived", that's why we are getting £1,000,000 over the next 10 years from the Big Local.

 

Gobowen is probably the largest village, and it is mostly residential. Both Weston Rhyn and St. Martins have industrial estates, and therefore local employment opportunities. Gobowen has the railway station, so attracts people coming and going to the village, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on the economic strength of the community.

 

As to Oswestry as a whole, I can only guess as to why it is such a poor town. I can report a recent observation: I saw 3 young men who appeared to be rifling through the bins in the alley between the bottom of Bailey Street and Willow Street a couple of weeks ago. I didn't ask what they were doing.

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The centre bits of Gobowen, St Martins and weston Rhyn are classed as deprived mainly because they score so badly in stuff to do with 'poverty of opportunity', i.e. lack of any access to leisure, education, training etc etc.  Things to do with 'Quality of the environment' (air quality, landscape, etc) are classed as good.but the lack of facilities and transport drags the overall score right down.  

 

If you enter the post code within an area you are interested in on this site you get a map and diagrams showing the statistics broken down into types of deprivation for a lower super output area, (i.e. each Parish has 2,3 or 4 of these).  http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/  

 

If you are as geeky as me you will find these really fascinating and a mine of useful information. 

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Gardner's thoughts on why Oswestry is deprived please? It's appalling that people should resort to rifling through bins, though I saw it happen in the rich Home Counties as well.

 

Thank you Maggie for the link. That is amazing. Now I've sent out our monthly newsletter, I can sit down and spend hours looking through it.

 

Would having the train running from Gobowen to Oswestry make any difference to 'poverty of opportunity'? There don't seem to be many buses.

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This Wednesday, June 18th.

7.30 at Eastern Oswestry Community Centre

Come and be trained to be a Dementia Friend.

This is in support of Oswestry becoming a Dementia Friendly Town, and also because we are all getting older, there are a lot of elderly people in the area and there is a chance that we, or somebody close, may well be affected by this condition.

So please come along and find out more.

 

£1 entry to cover refreshments (lemon cake and coffee walnut cake this week!) and Hall hire.

 

For more details contact

oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

or 01691 680382

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Oswestry now has 15 new Dementia Friends.

 

Our big Autumn meeting is on October 22nd, when Jackie Jeffrey, Manager Shropshire Citizens Advice has agreed to come and talk about Debt.

Please keep that date in your diary.

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Lots of plans for next year.

 

  • Jackie Jeffrey talking about debt on October 22nd.
  • With the closure of Lorne Street Day Centre and relocation of Adults with Learning Disabilities to Avalon, we want to find out what is happening to the people who are unable to make this move. If you know of anybody affected, please let us know.
  • We decided that we should scrap the 1914 Exhibition. It would be a tremendous amount of work, and although it would really raise the profile of the group, perhaps the time spent could be used better elsewhere. A display on the Group’s work in the Library has been suggested instead..
  • Fair Trade Fortnight is in the spring, and we aim to have a speaker from this organisation at much the same time.
  • We would all like to see more young people become politically aware. We are working on ways in which this could be done.
  • The problem of adequate available sheltered housing will be considered.
  • The topic of zero hours contracts will be put on hold as new legislation is due. We know that there are employers in Oswestry who have these contracts.
  • We will expand our remit into looking into mental health issues.
  • We have invited Ruby Hartshorn from Shropshire Disability Network to come over and talk about their work
  • We have invited Ann Shaw back to talk about Safe Places and also Hate Crime.
  • The general demise of the NHS was considered, but this is an enormous topic.

The next meeting will be another house meeting at 7.30 on Thursday September 18th.

If you would like to come / find out more, please contact:  oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

Everybody is welcome..

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We're still here! After a month off, we are full of new plans.

 

Coming up we have Jackie Jeffrey from Shropshire Citizens Advice talking about Debt on October 22nd. 7.30 at Eastern Oswestry Community Centre.

Then on October 30th I will be talking about 'Equality Groups - the Oswestry Model' over in Shrewsbury. 7.30 at the United Reform Church opposite Shrewsbury Abbey.

In November we hope to revisit the topic of the closure and relocation of our Day centres. A lot has been happening, but little seems to have been reported.

 

Thinking about where we are at the moment, I have come to the conclusion that we are about five 'C's.

 

Campaigning - about the Day centres, closures of youth clubs and also about the bedroom tax
Challenging - the learners from Derwen College came over to challenge our perception of learning disabilities.
Community - we have covered many things to do with the community - for example Hate Crime, Dementia Friends, and Safe Places. The Foodbank has our continual support.
Communication - a lot of time is spent putting people in contact with one another.

Caring - about those who really haven't had a chance to have their say.

 

If you would like to know more, please e-mail us.

oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com
 

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NEXT MEETING - JACKIE JEFFREY ON DEBT

Jackie is Chief Executive Officer for Citizen's Advice Shropshire and is coming over on Wednesday October 22nd to talk to us.This will be at 7.30 in Eastern Oswestry Community Centre.
She will be talking about DEBT in it's widest form. What the scale of debt in the Oswestry area and Shropshire is, how people get into debt, how the CAB is campaigning against various ways in which people do get into debt, and how people try to recover from it.

 

We will be charging £1 to cover expenses.

If you would like to know more, our e-mail address is: oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

Everybody is welcome.

We will also be looking at Day Care again. This will be on at 7.30 December 4th in the Parish Rooms (next to St Oswald's Church), when we will be having representatives from Shirehall coming to explain what has been happening.

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Jackie was excellent.

She discussed the debt problems mainly in the Oswestry and surrounding  area,which Citizen’s Advice Shropshire have handled in the last six months. A number of statistics were supplied, including

  • Most of the people affected were in the 40-49 age group,
  • The biggest debts were for 70-74 year olds,
  • Out of a total amount of debt in Shropshire of £3.8 million, one fifth was in Oswestry itself.
  • Almost one third of total debt was owed by disabled or people with long-term health problems.
  • Single person households have the most debt of any group, with over half of these single people having dependent children.
  • Just under half of these people were in employment.
  • Most money was owed on Unsecured Loans, then Credit Cards and then Mortgages. The lowest amounts owed were Rent Arrears and Secured Loans Arrears

She described some other causes of debt - Payday Loans, Log Book Loans and Prepayment Meters, and then went on to discuss what CAS actually do to advise and guide people with debt problems so they can get themselves back on an even financial keel as quickly as possible.

 

Please come to our meetings. You will be guaranteed a warm welcome - and a piece of cake!

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DAY CARE IN OSWESTRY

 

It is over a year since Shropshire Council announced the closure and relocation of The Lorne Street and Avalon Day Centres. The Day Centre at Lorne Street has now closed and some users have been relocated to an extended and refurbished Avalon Day Centre.

 

We have organised a meeting so that we can find out what exactly has been happening and the thinking behind it.

 

Gavin Bayliss, Day Services Manager, and Ruth Houghton who is Head of Social Care, Efficiency and Improvement, both from Shropshire Council, have been invited.. We hope that they will explain the reasons behind these decisions and how people have been affected.

 

The meeting is on Thursday December 4th at 7.30 in St Oswald’s Church Parish Rooms on Church Street, Oswestry. £1 admission will be charged to cover expenses.

 

If you are interested or concerned, please come along and find out more.

 

Or: phone  01691 680382 or e-mail oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

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Day Care meeting on December 4th
This must have been one of our best meetings. Not only did we have a record crowd of 30 (brilliant for Oswestry!), but a lot of people have been talking about it since.

So what happened?
Gavin Bayliss, Day Services Manager and Ruth Houghton, Head of Social Care, Efficiency and Improvements were joined by Frieda Parry who is Locality Organiser and responsible for Day Care in Oswestry and Ellesmere.

 

We started the evening with an outline of the background, reminding the audience that at our very first meeting last September, Adrian Johnson had promised that the decision on the closure and relocation of the users from Lorne Street Day Centre and Avalon Day Centre would be publicised in October – 2013… That is why we had this meeting – so that what had happened could be published. This is that Lorne Street is no longer being used, Avalon has been re-furbished and the users assessed and those most eligible moved there.

 

Ruth outlined the use of Personal Budgets and there was a consideration of the Tender Notice for Avalon and commissioning procedure. The closing date for this has now passed and tenders are being considered. The final decision will be based on the quality and price of the service offered according to a complex formula.

 

However, two main areas of concern soon appeared.
Firstly, the daily activities of the users at Avalon were questioned. While there are small groups who weekly go gardening or walking or use The Venue at Park Hall, a large percentage remain at Avalon all day. Frieda described these as being “quite happy to sit and chat”. For 8 hours a day?? Input from Derwen pointed out that this was insufficient and that these people need mental stimulation.
Secondly, the initial consultation held last year was questioned by a number of the carers present. These people felt that they weren’t properly consulted and that asking the users themselves would not always result in objective replies. It also transpired that there are monthly meetings to discuss activities at Avalon. We had three Town Councillors and one County Councillor present, and none of them knew anything about these.
Surely a lot more communication is needed.
 

Edited by Penny

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We have been told today that Cllr Martin Bennett has resigned for personal reasons.

 

However the means by which his replacements are to be elected, both for Shropshire Council and Oswestry Town Council, raise some questions.

 

The notices of election for these posts were issued by the Returning Officer today,Thursday, January 8th, Nominations must be delivered to Shirehall by 4pm next Friday (January 16th). This is only nine days after the original notice.

 

Surely one must ask how interested people might have a chance to stand for election. Anybody finding out about these vacancies are going to be very hard pressed to obtain nomination papers from Shirehall, get them completed and then returned in only a few days. This does not seem to give people living in Oswestry a fair and equal opportunity to represent their neighbourhood.

 

Is such a short time frame the norm?

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Lots of planning later, we have come up with an interesting Spring Programme.

 

March 5th – Fair Trade. How fair is it? A chance to find out more and ask questions.

7.30 pm in St Oswald’s Church Parish Rooms.

 £1 admission to cover hall hire.

 

March 19th – Future Fit. What exactly is planned for the NHS in this area? A team from Future Fit will come and explain everything in an interactive session without too many long words. We can then give OUR views and ask OUR questions.

7.30 pm in The Main Hall at The Marches School.

£1 admission to cover hall hire

 

*April 28th – Pre-election hustings. In collaboration with Churches Together in Oswestry District, this is your chance to put questions to our Prospective Parliamentary Candidates

 

*May 21st – Income Inequality. Led by Derek Hughes from Hope Church, this will explain how income inequality affects everybody’s lives

 

*June 18th – Shropshire Disability Network. Ruby Hartshorn will come and speak about everything that this sign-posting group does all over Shropshire, including Safe Places here in Oswestry

 

* Venues to be announced

 

PLEASE TRY TO SUPPORT US. We may be called the 'Oswestry Equality Group', but we are here for everybody in the wider area.

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So - the BIG meeting this Thursday, March 19th

 

NHS Futurefit presentation and Question Time.

 

The Main Hall at The Marches School, Morda Road, Oswestry. SY11 2AY

7.30pm

£1 admission to cover the hire of the hall.

 

This is YOUR chance to ask YOUR questions and share YOUR concerns

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March 19th saw the arrival of Paul Tulley, Chief Operating Officer, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, plus Sian Sansum, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (i.e. ‘The A Team’) at our NHS Futurefit meeting.

 

With the aid of a Power Point presentation, Paul gave a clear explanation, without too many long words and acronyms, of the NHS Futurefit’s current thinking about the future of health care in Shropshire. This was followed by a wide-ranging question time.

 

However, the overall impression was that we are being treated in a very similar way to the rest of Shropshire. This is despite our proximity to Wales and the number of people coming over the border to receive treatment at our Minor Injuries Unit, let alone those attending Shrewsbury Hospital.

 

A letter to The Advertizer (March 31st), said it all when it comes to the very poor attendance.

An excerpt reads:

“I was ashamed at the lack of numbers attending (considering the effect this reorganization is likely to have)  ...…….. Why are the people of Oswestry so complacent about what is going to happen…?”

 

It should be noted that I wrote to every hospital, surgery, pharmacy, school, local group within a 20 mile radius, on both sides of the border. And we got 46 people….Out of a total of more than 34,000 registered with doctors at our three surgeries.

 

However, onwards and upwards.

 

Our next meeting will be on May 21st.

Pastor Derek Hughes from Hope Church has very kindly agreed to repeat the presentation on Income Inequality that he gave to Coffee Live back in January. This draws from the Spirit Level book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which explains the social and health problems associated with a society as unequal as ours.

The meeting will be held in the Upstairs Room at Hope Church. This is on Laburnum Drive, Oswestry, SY11 2QR . There is plenty of parking nearby and entrance is by the gate to the right of the church. We will be supplying coffee / tea and cake as usual, but there won’t be a raffle.

 

Hope Church has been helping to build a shelter for children in Montenegro so that they may receive literacy classes. Derek, his family and a group of helpers have just returned from there and I have asked him to tell you a little about their work there. Instead of charging for hall hire, I would appreciate it if we could all make a generous donation to further the church’s work in Montenegro.

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The last item posted 16 days ago has been looked at by over 70 people. That's 70+ people who are interested enough to find out what we are doing.

It would be great if some of them could make it to our meetings. We have expanded our remit to include the CO area, so I'm watching what's happening at Gobowen Library.  We see ourselves as a Watchdog for the Oswestry area.

Please let us know how we can help on:  oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com

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The Equality Group invite you to a meeting to find out about Shropshire Disability Network . This will be on June 18th at 7.30pm at Eastern Oswestry Community Centre, Cabin Lane, Oswestry. SY11 2LQ.

Ruby Hartshorn from Shropshire Disability Network has agreed to come over to speak about their work. There are some 28,000 people with disability and / or long term illness in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Shropshire Disability Network exists to provide a voice for them and their families. They have also taken over the organisation of the Safe Places Scheme which was established here in Oswestry last summer.
Ruby has also been asked if she could talk about how the £12 billion of welfare cuts threatened, might affect the disabled in this county.

£1 entry to cover costs please. Refreshments included.

If you would like to find out more about them, their web site is:
http://shropshire-disability.net/
There are also always leaflets in the entrance to Oswestry Library.

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We are still here and are launching a new season of events.

After a very successful table-top sale at the Oswestry Charity Market last Friday, you can next catch up with us at the Community Games on Sunday September 20th, where we will be supporting local disability charities and can also tell you more about the Equality Group.

Our next big public meeting will be on Thursday October 15th, when Cllr Steve Charmley, Deputy Leader of Shropshire Council, will be speaking about Shropshire's efficiencies (cuts).
This will be at 7.30 pm in Memorial Hall, Oswestry. £1 admission to cover expenses please.
Everybody will be very welcome. This is your chance to come and ask questions and air your views.

After that, on November 19th we will have a team from NHS Futurefit coming out to tell us about the future of hospital services in Shropshire. This follows the decision on October 1st as to where the Emergency Centre will be sited and whether we will have an Urgent Care Centre here in Oswestry.

This will be at 7.30pm in The Centre on Oak Street. Again, £1 admission please. This is open to absolutely everybody .

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I have had the following letters printed in The Advertizer in recent weeks:

 

1. It is excellent to read that the new B & M store on Salop Road has created 80 'new' jobs.

BUT:

How many are full time?

How many are part-time?

How many jobs (full and part-time) were lost when Homebase closed?

It is difficult to celebrate these 80 new jobs without knowing the full facts about the previous redundancies.

Published 20 / 10 / 15

 

2. It is some time ago that you briefly reported that Cllr Keith Barrow, Leader of Shropshire Council, was 'under investigation'.

Since then, we have been told nothing. This has resulted in wild accusations and many unsubstantiated rumours.

Cllr Barrow has written in the Advertizer about 'openness and transparency'. Surely now is the time to put this into practice and for him to tell us all exactly what is going on.

Remember that he is Oswestry South's Shropshire Councillor.

Published 27 / 10 / 15

 

3. Oswestry Equality Group is a non party political group which believes that everybody has the right to free speech. The following is NOT a party political question.

At our meeting reported in last week’s Advertizer, one question remained unanswered.

Why don’t the politics of the majority of Oswestry Town Council and our local Shropshire Councillors reflect the economic situation of this area, where we have low incomes and relatively high unemployment?

Published 03/11/15

These are not rhetorical questions, and I would really value some feedback.

So- what do you think about them?

 

 

 

Edited by Penny
Font too small!

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The Oswestry Equality Group is offering people in the Oswestry area another chance to ask questions about something that will affect us all - what is happening to hospital provision in this area. Although NHS Future Fit have delayed their decision about the future of Hospital and Urgent Care in Shropshire, they are still very keen to come and tell us what the current situation is. Two very senior representatives from the NHS Future Fit team will be coming over to answer questions and address our concerns.
This meeting will be next Thursday, November 19th at 7.30pm at The Centre, Oak Street, Oswestry. Admission will be £1 on the door.

The kind of questions that we need to ask are:
Why wasn’t a decision about the future of our hospital provision made on October 1st as promised?

How much is  all this costing, especially now the Shropshire CCG is under special measures due to their overspend?

What exactly is an Urgent Care Centre?

And will we get one if we don’t have any beds in Oswestry?'

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In response to what I wrote above

Over the coming months people in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales will have an opportunity to have their say about the way healthcare is delivered for the next 20 years. We want local people to help shape the future of those services. You can share your views and tell us where you think healthcare services should be located by attending one of our pop up stands across the region. We will be coming to Oswestry on 1 March and will be at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital from 10am until 2pm. Then you can find us later at Memorial Hall in Oswestry from 4pm until 8pm. If you aren’t able to make it then you might be able to attend any of the other dates below or you can follow @NHSFutureFit on Twitter or visit our website www.nhsfuturefit.co.uk

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We may be called the Oswestry Equality Group, but we try to tackle issues that affect us all in this area.

Absolutely everybody is welcome to our meetings. You will even get tea / coffee and cake thrown in.

This is our new programme.

PROPOSED MEETINGS – SPRING - SUMMER 2016

February 18th 7.30pm in the Council Chamber in Guildhall

Mr David Preston, Clerk to Oswestry Town Council, will speak about ‘Oswestry Town Council – present and future’.

 

March 10th 7.30pm in Cabin Lane Church

Living with disability. A presentation by learners from Derwen College, together with the showing of their award winning film about the Orange Wallet scheme,by which they can travel safely by train.

 

May 19th 7.30pm in Cabin Lane Church

Mental health provision in Shropshire. A round table discussion highlighting the positives and suggesting improvements to the current provision.

 

June 16th 7.30pm in Cabin Lane Church

Shaun Pender, Unite Community Regional Co-ordinator, West Midlands, will be talking about the role of trade unions in modern day Britain.    

 

£1 minimum donation for each meeting please.

 

 

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