17 October (Part 2) - Fancy a quickie?
These was a Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting in Bexley last night, I
arrived home just in time to catch the webcast. It was Chaired by Councillor Alan Downing and
began at the unusual time of 7 p.m. The subject was NHS Urgent Care
Centres. The one in Erith can only be described as a mess and the next nearest
is run by Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Clinical Commissioning Group (C.C.G.) and the
Chairman was in favour of his Committee forming some sort of alliance with them.
He wanted to hear “substantial reasons for being part of a Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee”.
Councillor Richard Diment (Conservative, Sidcup) wanted to be sure it “doesn’t
have any detrimental effect on services within Bexley”. Councillor James Hunt
(Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) was “not convinced by the data that had come from the C.C.G.” and
that it would be best if the Chairman himself made the decision. Despite a total
lack of “substantial reasons” the Chairman remained in favour
of the Joint Scrutiny Committee and asked for two delegates to attend it.
Councillor Hunt volunteered but no one else did so immediately.
The meeting ended at 7:09 p.m.