The brave people who work within the fire and rescue service protecting us and our homes when we are at risk, are themselves facing a difficult future. These highly trained and specialist workers are being threatened by one of the unfairest pension reorganisations that this Government has yet dreamed up.

It is not long since we saw the Royal Mail sold off at a bargain basement price; as I understand it, the real value to the Government was that it enabled them to get their hands on the £28 Billion pension pot. Hard cash to make their books look better than they really are. Our Postie’s pensions will now be paid for by our children through taxation, in other words they have taken the £28 Billion (plus growth making maybe £38 Billion) and made our children pay that back over the coming decades.

What are the Government up to now with the Fire Service Pensions? Nothing good from what I can see; the fitness requirement for the officers will be greatly reduced enabling them to work well into their 60s at risk to their own health. Does that mean that officers will no longer be able to carry collapsed people out of burning buildings or will they have heart attacks themselves trying to do it? 

Whatever the Governments ‘pension reform’ means in this case I would not be surprised if smoke and mirrors are the Government’s primary consideration and not us and our house fires.

By reading through the press coverage and checking the Environment Agency website it is clear that next to nothing will be done in the next few years to protect properties near the Thames in the Royal Borough, from flooding. Upstream in Bisham and Marlow there will be EA work to protect 195 homes and similarly downstream, 1505 homes in Staines will be protected too. Why has Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and Adam Afriyie MP failed to persuade the ConDem Government of the urgency to protect areas like Datchet and Old Windsor? 

Some of the worst flooding in the country last February was in Datchet, Windsor and Old Windsor. Much of the floodwater was far too deep to wade through and the emergency services had to rescue people in boats. Not only did the water levels in these areas rise quickly just after the Jubilee river barrier was opened but the brown fluid running through people’s homes was a filthy mix of silt and sewage. 

So what has the local MP, Mr Adam Afriyie and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Leadership actually achieved to ensure that flood prevention resources are allocated to this stretch of the river? Nothing from what I can see. What agreement has been reached with the Environment Agency over the use of the Jubilee River in a future flood, will Datchet be sacrificed for the sake of the elegant mansions in Bray?

If elected next May I will fight tooth and nail to get a better deal for Windsor Constituents.

One of the ghastly things about unusual weather events is that they sometimes bring problems that are far worse than we ever expected. My partner’s house was flooded last February 2014 and the ground floor remained a building site waiting for the illusive builders right through to November. However when the cold, sewage filled water seeped up through the floor boards, I had no idea that further downstream a little boy was losing his life to that same flood. I met Zane’s father when out training for my 300 mile Jarrow to Westminster walk this summer. In February, he and his family were rushed to hospital suffering from poisoning after the water rose up through the landfill site next to their riverside home. 7 year old Zane never woke up and his Dad Kaye is now paralysed from the waist down having been poisoned by hydrogen cyanide, a highly dangerous chemical gas used in warfare and executions. www.truthaboutzane.com 

Zane died 10 miles down stream from the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and his local authority (Spelthorne) has so far been unable to answer the question of why this tragedy happened. It is the role of local authorities to ensure that landfill sites are not a public health risk and winter and the risk of flooding is coming.  my plea to RBWM is to review and ensure the decontamination of landfill sites in the Borough? Do they contain poisons that will be released if there are more floods this winter? Should they be holding landfill site owners to account and just what is buried in them anyway? 

Suddenly in November the ConDemGovernment announced that NHS England will no longer be responsible for kidney dialysis (a life saving treatment for people with failed kidneys): Instead, our local Clinical Commissioning Groups will fund and commission these services with all the risk that carries of a postcode lottery for patients.

Not only has the Government not consulted with Kidney patient groups and charities before announcing this but it has said that the new system will be in place by next April: An incredibly tight deadline for such a specialised and high tech’ health treatment.

On Tuesday 25th November, concerned charities and patient groups lobbied the ‘Dialysis Clinical Reference Group’ in Parliament to seek to belatedly influence Government plans. Why the rush to make such sweeping changes to such a sensitive service? Is the timetable being dictated by the needs of patients or a desire to move an expensive service before the General Election date?

To make it easier for people to find my blogs and articles I have set up this new blog page. It will take over from my old one where you can find a number of older articles at http://fionaforlabour.blogspot.co.uk/ 

I hope you enjoy reading it and don't hesitate to contact me about the issues I raise.
Fiona