Lib Dem Matthew Taylor demands better health, social care and wellbeing services in Slough

"The Lib Dems have been right to consistently demand better funding for the NHS" says Matthew Taylor. The Lib Dems' longstanding demands for better funding and joined-up policies for the NHS & Social Care include the public health services covered by local councils that are vital for reducing levels of ill-health. Tory Government failures on social care funding contribute to "bed-blocking" and create even worse problems for the NHS.

Slough's Labour-run Council is right to take initiatives aimed at improving activity levels and well-being, but a new official report shows an alarming slump in activity levels in Slough between 2015/16 and 2017/18. It could be linked to Labour's massive increase in charges for hiring sports pitches from April 2015. Lib Dem campaigner Robert Plimmer kept asking Labour to reverse their damaging policy of increasing charges for sports pitches. Labour councillors refused to reverse their policy even after Robert Plimmer used a Freedom of Information request to reveal that the Labour councillors' policy had resulted in a big drop in the number of council pitches being hired.

Slough's Labour Council was also wrong to privatise some of services previously provided by NHS staff from Upton Hospital. In July 2017 NHS nurses and health visitors based at Upton Hospital leant that Slough's Labour-run Council had given the contract to run the services they provided for young people to a private company. See photo of Matthew Taylor outside Upton Hospital highlighting the campaign against privatisation and in favour of a joined up, holistic approach to health, social care & wellbeing.

Read a full account of Lib Dem demands for better services in Slough & action to save the High Street in Focus on Cippenham Meadows Issue 26 (March 2019)