OTLEY MATTERS Oct 09
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Q Otley QUALITY ters TOWN Mat COUNCIL Otley Town Council, Civic Centre, Cross Green, Otley LS21 1HD. Tel: 01943 466335 Fax: 468658 E-mail: [email protected] NOVEMBER 2009 No 50 WIN A TRIP ON THE WIN A Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Railway Step back in time and enjoy a train ride through the heart of Brontë country on the famous and very popular Trip Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Most services are operated by steam trains and the steep gradient up the Worth Valley from the Keighley terminus has been a challenge for locomotives ever since the line opened on 15th April 1867. The sound of a steam engine tackling this climb echoes from the steep sides of the valley, while great clouds of steam and smoke add drama to the scene. The five mile journey is a powerful reminder of our industrial heritage, as well as being a unique way of enjoying the beautiful countryside immortalised by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. The Railway is perhaps most famous for its role in the 1970 film version of Edith Nesbit’s story The Railway Children. The Railway is justifiably proud that its painstaking attention to detail pays off so handsomely. It is a railway for all seasons, where winter visitors can see the stations bathed in gaslight and warm themselves in front of the coal fires in the waiting rooms. In summer, the station gardens are alive with blooms. Kingfishers, herons and dippers can be seen in the adjacent streams. Locally brewed real ale provides Otley Town Council Garden & Allotment welcome refreshment in the on-train buffet car. COMPETITION WINNERS 2009 The Railway is easily accessible by public transport from Otley. From Otley bus station you can catch either the 962 or X84 service to Ilkley and then change onto service 762. This service leaves Ilkley bus station half-hourly and the journey to Keighley takes approximately 40 minutes. For a chance to win a pair of tickets for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, (there are two prizes available), please complete the entry slip below and return to Otley Civic Centre before the 4th December 2009 to be entered into the prize draw. You will also win a West Yorkshire DayRover ticket to get you there. The winners will be drawn by the town mayor, Cllr Gerard Francis and will be notified by post. Alternatively you can enter by email. Please send your details and answer to the competition question to: [email protected] Please send your entry slip to: Otley Matters (‘KWVR’ Prize Draw), Otley Civic Centre, Cross Green, Otley, LS21 1HD. New NOTICE BOARD for Town ✄ The eagle-eyed will have seen the new notice board in the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway - Prize Draw refurbished Market Place. As part of Question: Who wrote the book ‘The Railway Children’? the refurbishment of the Market Place Leeds City Council erected for the town a useful notice board which ANSWER _________________________________________________ is managed by the Town Council. In a central location in town it makes Name: ___________________________________________________ an excellent place for community, Address: _________________________________________________ council and tourism information. Any community group wishing to advertise an event should contact _________________________________ Post Code: ______________ the Town Clerk’s office with the notice. Notices must not exceed A4, access will be on a first come first served basis and will have Telephone : ___________________ Email: _____________________ to take account of statutory Council notices needing space. www.otleytowncouncil.gov.uk BEHIND Wharfedale Hospital CLOSED Missed Appointments You may recall from previous articles about DOORS Wharfedale Hospital that the hospital treats about Domestic Abuse Charity forced to CLOSE ITS DOORS 11,000 patients every Behind Closed Doors is preparing to enter Exit Strategy on 1st December 2009, month. However, a little with a view to cease operating on 28th February 2010. This will leave West and published fact related to this is the number of missed North West Leeds without a comprehensive outreach service and recovery appointments that occur. programme for women. These are referred to as DNAs – Did Not Attend. Careful Despite relentless efforts to secure funds to sustain and further develop service analysis of these missed appointments is undertaken to try delivery, the current economic climate appears to be taking its toll. to ascertain the cause. Obviously it is appreciated that Government efforts to support Third Sector organisations through financial circumstances arise which prevent a patient from attending hardship have been made available to small charities with a relatively low their appointment, however it is very disappointing to note income or large charities with a much higher income. Behind Closed Doors is a that many patients do not advise the hospital when this medium-sized charity and therefore it falls through the net and cannot access happens. any of this funding. • The rate of DNAs at our hospital is about 7% in Safer Leeds has provided Behind Closed Doors with small amounts of funding outpatient clinics that is approximately 260 patients per from under spend in the past. Whilst this money has bought the organisation time month who fail to attend for their appointment. Just to secure additional funds in times of crisis and has therefore been invaluable, it has never been either a regular or guaranteed source of income. There has never consider the time associated with the booking of an been a continuous commitment to supporting the service and without this it has appointment, the administration, paperwork and the 1 been difficult to ensure sustainability for the organisation. nursing and medical staff; there is probably at least 1 /2 hours taken up with each appointment. This means over Behind Closed Doors recognises the need for sustainability of the organisation. As 390 hours of lost clinical time per month. This equates to such, Behind Closed Doors is in the process of establishing a social enterprise, 10 full time staff. recycling and distributing furniture for the benefit of the wider community. The profit from this would be gift aided into the Behind Closed Doors Charity to Not only this but the appointment slot is then support service delivery. This would support BCD to be more independent in that • it would be less reliant on trust and public sector funding. A commitment of even unavailable for another patient. short term funding would support continuation of the service until the trading arm has been successfully established. • There is also the duplication of all the work associated with a replacement appointment. Behind Closed Doors has provided outreach support to 500 women over the past year and is concerned about the gap in service provision that will be created by Of more importance to you or me though is that this the loss of its service delivery. resource is denied to other patients who may be desperately waiting for medical attention. We need your support! Sadly there are patients who are “repeat offenders”. These Please contact Louise Tyne or Orlaith Mooney on 0845 673 0008 patients are referred back to their GP’s and in the worst PO Box 275 LS19 9BN cases, no further appointments will be made for them until there has been an explanation of why this keeps happening. ❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅ When a notional figure of an average £100 is used to cost these lost appointments, you can quickly see that in the case of our hospital, over £312,000 is lost per year from 24thOtley Victorian Fayre missed appointments. Having said this Wharfedale has a better record than other I take great pleasure in inviting you to the 24th Otley Victorian Fayre which will parts of the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust but it is still a be held on Friday the 11th December 2009. problem. It has been my job, this year, to chair the committee of 8 dedicated people who DNAs are always going to occur with any service provider & work tirelessly to organise an event that has become such an integral part of it is frustrating when professional teams & other patients Otley’s Christmas celebrations. I would like to officially thank all my fellow are affected. It is important to identify any particular committee members for their commitment and hard work. I am pleased to cause that can be corrected to relieve the problem. In the report that the recent newspaper articles have been successful and have brought case of Wharfedale the average DNAs have been reasonably 6 new members into the group. stable at about 6% although recently this has started to Last year we were hit by dreadful weather but it did not stop the thousands of push up to over 7%. people, young and not so young, who took part in this wonderful event. As in previous years, during the day, the 2009 Fayre will feature local school children Wharfedale Hospital also experiences about 35 singing carols at various venues throughout the town. The exact locations can be cancellations per month on the day of appointment. This is found in our programme which will be on sale at a number of outlets in the town. not seen to be such a major issue as in most cases it is the Many of our shops and businesses will join in with the festivities by dressing patient’s condition or emergencies that give rise to a themselves and their windows using a Victorian theme. cancellation. This year’s charity will be at the Buttercross throughout the day and evening. The trend of DNAs at our hospital however is increasing. Henshaws is a society for blind people and is based in Harrogate although it Looking at average consolidated figures could mask the very covers the whole of Yorkshire.