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CARRICK
OVER-50’S FORUM
NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 31 – OCTOBER 2013
SUPPORTING & CAMPAIGNING FOR THE OVER-50’S
We had a really good turn out for the lunch meeting at the Merchants Manor Hotel in Falmouth in August. Good company, lovely food and excellent speakers.
We welcomed Jenny Trethewey and Vicky Maynard from Cornwall Glow which is a scheme targeted at helping households save energy and money. It is a collaboration between Cornwall Council and British Gas. It was made clear that you need not be a gas customer, or have any gas products but of course, like all these things there are strings, attached – one person in the home must be in receipt of a qualifying benefit. So if you are in receipt of a state benefit you could qualify for a free boiler and insulation. If you want to know more go to the website www.glowcornwall.co.uk or telephone 0800 316 4425
We then had an amazing talk given by Verity Barker from the Cornwall Blind Association. She had brought pairs of glasses which simulated many of the eye conditions we may meet from cataract, macro degeneration, tunnel vision and other conditions of which we probably have never heard and then combinations of all these things. It was truly awe inspiring and most people would not have had any idea how difficult it is for people to see almost anything with some of these problems. Verity also had a variety of helpful gadgets for people to inspect some of which would be most useful to people with very slight eye problems. To contact Verity email vbarker@cornwallblind.org.uk or telephone 01872 266709
To get in an early reminder that the next meeting is at the Carnon Inn at Carnon Downs. Plenty of car parking area and easy access. If you are coming by bus you will need an 88 and ask to be put off at THE FORGE stop. Do NOT get off at the bus shelter in Carnon Downs that will be too long a walk.
Our speakers in October are coming by popular request. They are both from Hine Downing in Falmouth. Roger Stephens our Forum solicitor last came nearly two years ago and he is bringing with him, Steven Bonney who is an independent financial advisor on Equity Release. If last time is anything to go by, it will stimulate lively debate.
Judith Whiteley
Champion for the Elderly
ACTIVE PLUS – Veterans inspiring people
The scheme in Cornwall that involves combat veterans teaching the over-50’s new skills as part of their own recovery is proving hugely popular. Injured veterans have been trained to provide information, group activities and support to older people who may feel socially isolated and lonely – or just looking for something different.
It is a unique and FREE programme which is run one morning a week over a total of 6 weeks.
The scheme was originally set up to teach combat veterans how to surf as part of their rehabilitation but it has grown way beyond that now and some of these veterans are now going round the country, including Cornwall, giving their time to helping the Over 50’s with a variety of topics such as fire safety, electrical safety, personal safety, first aid, crime prevention, Neuro linguistic programming, basic computer skills.
Alongside this, the project includes group and problem solving activities, teamwork and a sense of achievement.
As soon as we have identified suitable venues we will let you know and we hope you will be inspired to join us in this completely new way of helping ourselves and others to experience a new way of learning new skills.
This will be a great opportunity to participate in group activities, meet new people and have some fun. Please note this is not just a sit down and be fed information, it is a get up and have a go experience.
Find out more about Active Plus from their website www.activeplus.org.uk
An apology
In our last issue we published a picture of Swanpool beach. This image should have been credited to Ian Butler, a local Falmouthian.
What is the Forum all about?
New members and new readers are not always sure of our purpose in life. We are in fact one of well over 50 such groups in the South-West of England – all very diverse in their running but all with one aim to get the very best for older people.
People often ask how we differ from other organisations and charities. Many other organisations are usually single-issue and many of them health related but we will “have a go” at whatever is worrying a group of people, large or small, and even individuals who are not being heard.
We make representation hopefully in the right places and with so many groups, with a combined membership in the thousands, we do have influence through various routes to Ministerial levels. The Carrick Over-50s aims are set out below:
• To be accessible to all people regardless of race, creed or needs.
• To make sure ageism is a thing of the past.
• To encourage a positive view of ageing and older people.
• To help reach out to people who are lonely and isolated.
• For a greater awareness of older people’s interests and wants.
• To support better services.
• To support more efficient legislation.
• To work in partnership with all agencies affecting the lives of older people including local and national government - but remain non-party-political.
Transport issues
Having asked for people’s thoughts on local transport – we certainly got some!
Over the last 2 years the concentration of services is on students not the wider public. During the same period, Cornwall Council has reduced the level of its financial support to bus companies so a decline in service was inevitable.
First Bus is the provider of services in the Falmouth and Truro areas. Their service is of poor quality with late and often dirty buses driven by rude and uncooperative drivers (this from several sources!). During driver change over the relief is usually late and passengers have to wait while they get themselves organised, this results in a late service that builds up during the day.
The Corlink service that operates in the Carnon Valley area as an “on demand” mini bus which links up the rural parts to the main network has been cut from 2 mini buses 6 days a week for 15 hours daily to a 9.00 am to 2.30 service 5 days a week. This is of course again due to the reduction in Council support.
Cornwall Council has a department which produces bus timetables but little or no attempt has been made to tie up different operator’s timetables to enable passengers to link into other services. (Some very strange stories here!)
People in the villages between Falmouth and Truro have to walk to the main roads to catch a bus – not very good for the disabled or very elderly who are discouraged from using a service that is not reliable.
Truro Park and Ride The service has been running for over 5 years provided by Cornwall Council who appointed Western Greyhound, the bus operator, to run and manage the service.
However, on 1 September this year the Council awarded the contract to First Bus Cornwall. Bearing in mind the complaints received about the quality of the First Bus services in the west of the county, this is a disappointing development. Let us hope that the high standards set by Western Greyhound are maintained.
The Park for Truro service runs Monday through Saturday from 7 am till 7 pm with a day ticket charge of £1.80. For holders of bus passes if you go after 9.30 the daily charge is £1.00.
Thanks to Ron for co-ordinating these thoughts. We would appreciate hearing from other people who may have had experiences they would like to share both good and bad.
These stories will be replicated all over Cornwall and the sufferers are inevitably the older generation who do not drive cars and rely on public transport to move about. All this adds to the loneliness and isolation problems we are all so anxious to reduce.
Closure of public conveniences in 2013
Back in 2011 when the Council was making overtures to the Parish Councils and suggesting they should be taking over the running of the toilets in their area we ran two articles in Issue 17 (May) and Issue 20 (December) decrying this situation.
Now in 2013 we have not only not resolved the issue but it is marginally worse.
We have sent the following document to some Parish Councils, the MP for Falmouth and Truro area, the Director for Public Health and onwards to the South West Seniors Network who are taking the issue even further.
Letter:
Public toilets closures in 2013
It has been estimated that there has been a 40% drop in the number of public toilets across the UK. It is claimed that this is false economy for a variety of very good reasons. For example, people are less likely to go out if they are worried they cannot find a toilet, not just the elderly but people of all ages with a variety of medical problems e.g. irritable bowl syndrome, prostate, there is quite a comprehensive list. Remember loneliness and isolation harms health and leads to more hospital admissions.
Unison union is campaigning about the need for toilets and states that there could be a breach in the Equality legislation as the lack of toilets disproportionately discriminates against older people, mothers with children and pregnant women. Also that transport workers, postmen, police community support officers, refuse collectors and those employed in mobile work generally are seriously affected by these closures. It is worth a glance at the Public Sector Equality Duty of 2010 149 of the Equality Act. Is the Council actually fulfilling its obligations?
Whilst acknowledging that Cornwall Council does not have a statutory duty to provide public conveniences, it does have a legal obligation, under the 1998 Human Rights Act, to ensure that the human rights of individuals are respected, protected and fulfilled.
The widespread closure of toilets throughout Cornwall, attacks the core principles of fairness, human dignity, respect for one another to name but a few. The closure of such amenities challenges and compromises our human rights.
Not making adequate provision of public toilets is also a violation of a number of articles cited in the 1998 Human Rights Act. This includes Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) which includes being able to participate actively in the wider life of the community. Clearly this also links to the problems of isolation, loneliness and ultimately poor health when people lose the confidence to leave their own homes. This situation can impact on the older people, disabled people and the young who rely on accessibility of a public convenience.
Article 3 (the right not to be treated in an inhuman and degrading way) is also relevant in that inadequate facilities compromise the dignity of the individual as I am sure we all feel that using a public convenience should be a private and anonymous experience. Retreating behind a gravestone, nearest hedge or wherever seems to be private, should not be an option and indeed it is against the law to urinate or defecate in a public place.
Community Toilet scheme -
(a) Where is it up and running? What are the limitations for those with special requirements?
(b) How can it work in truly rural areas?
End letter.
If anyone has anything they would like to add to what we are trying to do, we will be very pleased to hear from you. For instance, how about paying 20p which is already happening in Falmouth?
Letters to the editor
“I am rather fed up with our Government trying to act as a big power, 50 years ago maybe. All we are now is a charity box to support all the uncivilised nations that are intent on destroying each other, often in the name of religion. Witness the mess going on in Syria, destroying the infrastructure, killing and maiming countless thousands and achieving nothing. This kind of thing goes on all the time world wide, for the tin pot dictators etc that start and keep running these wars know all too well that the UK and America will finance the reconstruction of the country and will feed and treat the remaining population.
“I may seem cynical but past history shows that war in one form or another is needed, for the armaments industry is the backbone of word wide trade. Without it there would be millions out of work, so keep on fighting, the politicians need your help, don’t think of peace, think of world trade, keep the bullets flying and money flying into the coffers of the big industrial armaments companies.”
- Bob B of Falmouth
Comment: Thanks Bob - not quite our usual type of letter but nevertheless thought provoking! Tongue in cheek it may be but the element of truth is there.
Our Government has just given £400 million to Syria and we hear this month that Cornwall Council will have to make cuts of £169 million in a county were people are already having to make choices — heat or eat.
Just for a laugh
****** FROM AN OLD ROLLS-ROYCE STAFF MAGAZINE ******
Sometimes it DOES take a Rocket Scientist!! (true story)..
Scientists at Rolls Royce built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners and military jets all travelling at maximum velocity.
The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
American engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains.
Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the American engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken shot out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's back-rest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin like an arrow shot from a bow.
The horrified Americans sent Rolls Royce the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the British scientists for suggestions.
You're going to love this......
Rolls Royce responded with a one-line memo:
" Defrost the chicken "
Housing for the over 50’s
Too many developers are trying to get planning permissions through on the back of the older person. Unfortunately in so many cases this is ill thought through. The older person moving home, downsizing or whatever wants to make this their last move - a home for life.
The Housing LIN (Learning and Improving Network) is gaining in national importance as the leading “knowledge hub” for a growing network of housing and social care professionals all over the country involved in planning commissioning, designing, funding, building and managing housing with care for older people.
New forms of sheltered housing and retirement housing have been pioneered in recent years, to cater for not only younger older people but older older people.
These developments cater for people to have their own self contained homes, their own front doors and legal right to occupy the property. It comes in many built forms, including blocks of flats, bungalow estates and retirement villages. Properties can be rented, owned or part owned/part rented, affordable. On site residents’ lounge, guest suites, laundry, restaurant, health and fitness facilities, computer rooms, the list is endless, are an added bonus.
Bear in mind that
• Half of the people older than 75 are living alone
• 1.2 million people over 50 are socially isolated
• 600,000 people leave their houses just once a week, or even less
• Loneliness and isolation have a severe impact on general and mental health and increases the likelihood of hospital admissions.
With our ageing and increasing population, due in part to retirees coming to live in Cornwall, the pressure on our Care Home accommodation is alarming and – let’s face it – how many of us want to be in a care home if there are really good alternatives?
If you want to read more about the Housing LIN go to www.housinglin.org.uk/AboutHousingLIN/
If you don’t have access to the website a more detailed explanation can be sent to you by post, just let us know. 01326 374279
The bedroom tax
This edition of the newsletter seems to have got well into the realms of human rights! The situation of the bedroom tax policy is clearly an injustice and totally irrational and almost certainly a breach of human rights.
In tackling under-occupancy, in Council houses or Housing Association houses, getting single people out of three-bedroomed houses regardless is so badly thought out one can only agree (at least I think so) with Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur on housing that the whole procedure should be scrapped as it is adversely affecting vulnerable people.
A person on housing benefit will have 14% deducted for one extra room and 25% for two. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that, to quote the Guardian newspaper “it wasn’t move, or pay extra. It was move, or get into catastrophic debt and end up being evicted”. The reporter goes on to say, “move then – except that the smaller properties for people to move into don’t exist. So now the choice is to move into a non-existent property or pay more of your non-existent money!”
Clearly someone has failed to take into account the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of yourself and your family including food, clothing HOUSING and medical care and necessary social service.
There have been horror stories of people being evicted for quite appalling reasons. Debts are mounting, become unmanageable, what next, homelessness? It affects all ages, but the larger house would suggest larger families now gone, and the occupant left behind almost certainly of the older generation. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
And don’t forget the good old Human Rights Act Article 8 to respect family life, HOME and correspondence.
If you have a tale to tell, we would appreciate hearing from you.
Upcoming Meetings
BI-MONTHLY FORUM MEETINGS
The bi-monthly meetings all take place on a THURSDAY from 12.00 noon until 3.00pm.
NEXT MEETING WILL BE:
3RD OCTOBER – Carnon Inn, Carnon Downs.
GUEST SPEAKER:
Our guest speakers at the October meeting are:
Roger Stephens, our Forum legal advisor.
Steven Bonney, Independent Financial Advisor on Equity Release, from Hine Downing Solicitors, Falmouth.
Transport can be arranged for those who really need it, but you will be asked to make a nominal contribution of £4.00 for your door to door service.
Please let Judith know if you are coming and require lunch.
DATES FOR 2013
3RD OCTOBER Carnon Inn, Carnon Downs
5TH DECEMBER Merchants Manor, Falmouth
PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS:
cornwall.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=27127
NEW FORUM MEMBERS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME
CONTACT THE FORUM
TERRY BECKETT (CHAIRMAN)
EMAIL: dandan.beckett@talktalk.net
TELEPHONE: 01326 314891
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JUDITH WHITELEY (CHAMPION FOR THE ELDERLY)
EMAIL: jwhiteley@cornwall.gov.uk
TELEPHONE: 01326 374279
ADDRESS: Carrick Over-50’s Forum, 17 Church Road, Mylor Bridge, TR11 5NL
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor or Carrick Over-50’s Forum
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