Grange Park Surgery, facts.
There’s some confussion about who did what at Grange Park Surgery, so for the first time I’m publishing a selection, about 30 of 200+, which reveal who did what and when. It’s hard to believe that between May 9th, 2023 to July 23rd, 2023 that everything was simply ‘resolved.’ The hard work was effectively completed on November 16th, 2022, it just required ratification by the council’s Executive, which was not in doubt given the history of this debacle. I would personally like to thank all those who took the time to sign the Grange Park Surgey petition, you were a key part of the final outcome, for without the petition, it’s hard to see how this would have progressed.
I will apologise to Grange Park Surgery for having to make this issue public, however, when people at the doorstep are told that I had nothing to do with this, and consistently we’re fed a diet of it was ‘all someone else’s work’, then this is the response.
That’s irrespective of any individual dialogue in the period to local elections, unelected members have little to no say, and if they had had, does that outweigh the community concensus via the petition, an already elected councillor, and almost 1,800 residents? This is simply not true, furthermore, despite what’s in the public domain, the project was not supported by Bradford Council. It was an almost 3-year hard slog to get surgery funding delivered, with all of the effort coming from Dr Rayment, I, and Philip Davies MP. There’s absolutely no mention of anyone else in email communications, and I’ll openly challenge others to produce and publish their own evidence.
Many of the emails shown have redacted content. This is to respect the requests of and privacy of others in the email chain. In all other respects, emails are exactly as received, starting from the first contact with Grange Park Surgery to the final agreement.
Read the emails very carefully, there’s a lot of information that needs to be aired to reveal the whole story.
FOI for permission to publish emails from Bradford NHS Trust
I have permission to share emails received from Grange Park Surgery, others are from my own email address. This was the subject of an FOI to Bradford NHS Trust shown here.
See also this post from July 2022: https://lbfl.co.uk/grange-park-surgery-an-intermediate-update/
Date |
Brief description |
Link to email |
|---|---|---|
18/05/2022 |
Response to Philip Davies MP following my query to him in respect of Grange Park Surgery. This serves to show that expansion of the surgery was NOT supported by Bradford Council, as noted on the second page. Furthermore, the \Parish Council receives 25% Community infrastructure Levy (CIL), not the 15% which is incorrectly stated. |
|
18/05/2022 |
Grange Park Surgery initial communication, regarding Grange Park Surgery, with Stuart Andew MP (Secretary of State.) |
|
18/05/2022 |
Correspondence to Stuart Andrew MP. Letter highlighting issues of CIL, solar panels (PVs) and heat pumps. |
|
18/05/2022 |
Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework affecting infrastructure need. |
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18/05/2022 |
Bradford's proof of evidence, see note 7.12.2, page 38, regarding Grange Park Surgeries capacity, particularly note 7.12.4, page 39 and 7.13.1 on page 40. These are grounds for CIL support from Bradford Council. |
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04/06/2022 |
Background notes in support of CIL at Grange Park Surgery. Note that none of the CIL received by Bradford Council is to be spent in Burley. |
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04/06/2022 |
Additional supporting information for Grange Park Surgery CIL. This outlines the fact that in law, charging authorities (Bradford Council) must spend the levy on infrastructure needed to support the development of their area, and they will decide what infrastructure is needed. Healthcare is the third bullet point. The regulations do not allow the Parish Council to use CIL to support a private enterprise, e.g. Doctor's surgery. |
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04/06/2022 |
More supporting evidence for Grange Park Surgery |
|
10/06/2022 |
Yet more background on the need for CIL at Grange Park Surgery. In the Council's statement of common ground (SOCG) at Sun Lane, Bradford Council and ceg: have responsibility to remedy an issue of their making. The community didn’t want the development, rather it was imposed upon them by Bradford and ceg:. |
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17/07/2022 |
Additional clarification about Grange Park Surgery - summary of detail provided thus far. |
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20/07/2022 |
Request for advice from the Conservative Group's chief whip for Grange Park Surgery. The point at which I decided to launch a petition. |
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21/07/2022 |
Additional information by hand to Philip Davies MP at his Shipley Office |
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21/07/2022 |
Hello, and piece for the Ilkley gazette and the start of creating the Grange Park Surgery petition, outlining procedural controls etc. |
|
27/06/2022 |
The start of the Grange Park petition. This is to get Bradford Council on the hook for CIL, given background from the inquiry which I had led on behalf of the community. |
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29/07/2022 |
Raising issues in the Ilkley Gazette |
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29/07/2022 |
The article to the Ilkley Gazette in full. |
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04/09/2022 |
Amends to the petition text. Plus, additional questions raised about the Health and Wellbeing Board. |
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24/09/2022 |
Issues with the petition not accepting outlook email addresses - resolved. |
|
07/10/2022 |
The petition is submitted and the council, and the council goes bonkers! |
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31/10/2022 |
The petition to Bradford Council is postponed until December, whilst Grange Park Surgery consider their position. I formally request clarity from council. The cause of the fallout, the previous email. It's far to politically embarrassing for Bradford to discuss the petition in the council chamber. Due to GDPR, I am unable to show the associated email, instead here's the text extract. |
|
16/11/2022 |
Bradford Council begin to concede defeat in the matter of Grange Park Surgery. This is the beginning of the end of the Surgery debacle, which could have been easily resolved at the outset. This was 6 months before Cllr Chris Steele was elected to office, May 9th, 2023. |
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23/11/2022 |
NHS meeting scheduled in Bradford. |
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06/04/2023 |
Email from Caroline regarding the timeline for funding the surgery. This is based on housing delivery and CIL payments to the council. |
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17/07/2023 |
Ultimately, the petition was withdrawn by Dr Rayment, a decision that was supported by Cllr Bob Felstead in favour of discussions with Bradford Council. In a meeting with senior representatives from the Council, and a representative of Bradford District Foundation NHS Trust, in October 2022, it was agreed that expansion would be part-funded from Council Infrastructure Levy (CIL). This couldn’t formally be agreed until Bradford Council’s Executive meeting in July 2023. (I was away on holiday). Others took the credit for the funding despite little to no engagement in a 2-and-a-half-year slog. |
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20/07/2023 |
Notable absence of two names on the email. This isn't the end of the story, this carried on until January 2024. |
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12/10/2023 |
And so it goes on. The first CIL payment has been made to Bradford Council by David Wilson Homes; funding should now be made. A backup plan is already in place. |
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13/10/2023 |
Any sign of involvement from anyone other than I? No one else is asked for help, I wonder why? Houston, we have a problem, but I had anticipated this issue. |
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30/10/2023 |
Escalated to the then Philip Davies MP to arrange a round table to get the job done. |
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16/01/2024 |
At last, and credit in the most part to Dr Rayment who been fighting for funding throughout. Pleased that I could be instrumental in the outcome. |
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16/01/2024 |
It might be going pear shaped! Just how many obstacles can be placed in our way. Why does Grange Park Surgery only ask for my help in continuing emails if anyone else was doing the hard work and getting the job done throughout. A simple question, and the only conclusion to reach is? |
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16/01/2024 |
Conveying message to the then Philip Davies MP. |