LETTER: How will our public services cope?

Years ago in our area we had Mansfield General Hospital with an A&E, King’s Mill Hospital, in a smaller state, Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital, Forest Hospital, Newstead Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Debdale Hall Recovery Hospital, and Crow Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.

Now we have King’s Mill Hospital with an A&E, and Mansfield Community Hospital to accommodate everyone in the district.

The junior doctors are coming out on strike because the Government is trying to impose extra working hours on them to cope with the doctor shortage and the volume of patients attending hospital.

We once had a local ambulance service which could cope efficiently with all accidents and emergency cases and hospital transfers. Also a police service with local police stations, a mounted and dog section, a traffic section and community officers to serve the public and investigate a crime. Now we are fobbed off with a crime number in my view. Full stop.

The police are now so few on the ground that certain incidents they no longer attend through lack of officers.

I believe their morale is at rock bottom with frustration because they are overworked and cannot do justice to their job properly or provided a service to the public as promised on their induction thanks to all the cut backs and loss of man-power.

King’s Mill hospital is short of beds. Patients are waiting weeks for appointments and operations. People are having to wait for an ambulances and if King’s Mill Hospital was a person it would be in Millbrook suffering from stress and mental anguish.

Now let’s say that every new home built contains on average three persons. Times this by 7,250 houses it equates to 24,750 extra bodies in the area by 2033. I realise that some new home buyers will come from this area but the majority will be from elsewhere, increasing the load on the now overloaded public services mentioned earlier.

Look at the places outlined for building and then look at the schools and doctors in that catchment area and the feeder schools to other senior schools.

Infrastructure is already too overloaded to cope.

I have seen no indication of any new hospitals, ambulances or schools, or extra police to cope with the expected influx.

Just take the proposed planned development off Radmanthwaite Road for instance. 325 to 375 new homes.

The only first school in that catchment area is Farmilo School and that’s not big enough to cope. Next is the old Bull Farm School, now the Crescent School, a nursery and primary school, and that’s not counting the influx of children to attend from the new housing development now being built at Pleasley Hill.

Houses will usually contain one car, some even two or three. All these will increase the traffic at rush hour times which at the moment is stress related 7,250 multiplied by two is 14,500 extra vehicles in 2033.

The council has to offer this affordable housing by act of the Government so I suggest it now askd for government money to provide an infrastructure to improve and maintain these services to a higher standard for a stable way of life for everyone who is going to be effected by it. And by the look of it, it means everyone living in the Mansfield community.

I realise that it is only increasing in small doses over 17 years and a lot can happen in the next 17 years. If careful planning and thought is the chief consideration by the planners it can put a lot of public fears to rest.

T. Spencer

By email