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HAF July 2010 Newsletter
HAF July 2010 Newsletter
On Tuesday 9th June membersof Hampshire Against Fluorida-tion
travelled to London to present apetition with over 15,300 signaturesto Gordon Brown at 10 DowningStreet. The petition called on thePrime Minister to intervene to ask theStrategic Health Authority to reverseits decision and honour his pledgethat it was for local people to decide.The activists were joined by Hamp-shire MPs Chris Huhne, Julian Lewisand Sandra Gidley as they handedover the signatures urging GordonBrown to personally step in and orderhealth chiefs to reverse their backingof fluoridation.The 40 campaigners then delivered aletter to Andy Burnham the new Sec-retary of State for Health calling onhim to instruct South Central Strate-gic Health Authority to reverse itsplans to add fluoride to 200,000homes in Southampton, Eastleigh,Totton and Netley.Caroline Place, one of the petitionorganisers, said: "
We are hoping that the policy will be changed, that they will change the law . Overwhelmingly, as youcan see from 15,000 people who havespoken by signing to say they don't want it, there is a majority against."
After the petition handover JohnSpottiwoode chaired a meeting inParliament with campaigners andlocal MPs Julian Lewis and SandraGidley. Protesters welcomed theattendance by Alan WhiteheadMP who, although in favour of fluoridation, felt that the SHAhad not achieved the necessarylocal support. Over 40 protes-tors attended the meeting tolisten to the MPs talk aboutwhat action they will be takingto challenge the SHA decisionand answer questions fromHAF members and supporters.The whole day was covered byreporters from the Echo, BBCand Meridian and receivedwidespread local news cover-age.
Hampshire Against Fluoridation takefight to No. 10
WWW.HAMPSHIREAGAINSTFLUORIDATION.ORG
Inside thisissue:
Petition hand-over at 10DowningStreet
Judicial Re-view of SouthCentral Stra-tegic HealthAuthoritydecision tofluoridate
SouthamptonMPs voiceconcernsabout theSHA decision
Ombudsmanconsideringaction over complaints
HAF Social
Join HAF
HAF members Caroline Place, Anna Peckham, John Spottis- woode, Mandy Clarke and Myra Metcalfe with MPs SandraGidley, Julian Lewis and Chris Huhne at 10 Downing Street
www.hampshireagainstfluoridation.orgWebsite: hampshirea-
July 2009
CONTENTSHAF go toDowning Street1The petitionhandover 2Andy Burn-ham
—
new Sec-retary of Health promotes water fluoridation2Judicial review 3SouthamptonMPs call for SHA to reviewdecision3HAFmembership4
Taking our protest to 10 Downing Street
At 9am on Tuesday 9th June 26protesters (and reporters fromthe Echo and BBC) met atSouthampton Central station totake our protest and petitionto the Prime Minister at 10Downing Street. We were ingood spirits and arrived in Lon-don to be met by another filmcrew from ITV and supportersfrom the NPWA and groupsfrom other parts of the countryand Ireland!Having made our way toDowning Street we met withthree of our local MPs SandraGidley, Julian Lewis and Chris
HAF campaigners make themselves known as they taketheir case to Parliament and the Prime Minister
Huhne. Bearing our box fullof signatures HAF membersAnna Peckham, CarolinePlace, Mandy Clarke, MyraMetcalfe and John Spottis-woode went into DowningStreet with the MPs and de-livered the petition to No 10.Then it was across the roadto the headquarters of theDepartment of Health
—
newly occupied by AndyBurnham where we handed ina letter asking him to honourhis own words about needinglocal support before anywater fluoridation scheme is
MPs Sandra Gidley, Julian Lewis, Chris Huhne and HAFsupporters give the decision to fluoridate the water supplya thumbs down outside Downing Street!
HAF Member Stephen Peckhamsaid:
Not only did we getthe chance to take
15,000 local people’s
signatures to 10Downing Street but wealso forged some really good alliances and thisis a platform for taking things forward
.
WWW.HAMPSHIREAGAINSTFLUORIDATION.ORG
Health Secretary urges more water fluoridation
Andy Burnham the new Secretary of State for Health has called for more water fluoridation schemes to be introduced in his first national speech to the NHS. Heurged the NHS to be bolder on public health and stated that water fluoridation is
“safe and effective”—
clearly he has not read the York Review. The next day, fol-lowing enquiries from the Times Newspaper he resigned from his post as vice-president of the British Fluoridation Society
—
a post that he had not declared inthe MPs Register of Interests. Burnham has long standing connections with theBFS and the BFS has recently moved its offices to the Primary Care Trust covering
Burnham’s constituency.
imposed. Then we were onour way again to the Houses of Parliament where we gatheredin a committee room to listento Sandra Gidley and JulianLewis as well as SouthamptonTest MP Alan Whitehead whosupports fluoridation but isunhappy with the lack of localsupport.It was a great day for makingnew alliances and we certainlymade an impact. After refresh-ments in the House of Com-mons cafeteria, it was back home to watch ourselves onthe news.
Wasting NHS money
Southampton City PCTspent over £30,000 on pro-motional material andcommitted substantialstaff resources to persuadelocal people to support water fluoridation. TheSHA spent over £200,000on meetings and publicityand as much again on staff costs on what was sup-posed to be an unbiasedconsultation. What a waste of scarce NHS funds.
PAGE 2
SHA Decision set for Judicial Review
PAGE 3
An application has beenfiled with the High Court for a judicial review of the deci-sion made in February 2009to fluoridate the water sup-ply of Southampton. Thedecision was made by theSouth Central StrategicHealth Authority (SCSHA)of the National Health Ser-vice. The legal challengeargues that the SHA failedto have regard to the Gov-
ernment’s policy that mass
fluoridation of drinking wa-ter should only go ahead inany particular area if a ma- jority of the local people arein favour of it.
The application challenges thedecision on the grounds: that itis Government policy that fluori-dation should only go ahead if the local population is in favourand clearly it is not. The regula-tions for the consultation under-taken by the SHA required anassessment of the cogency of the arguments for and againstfluoridation and this did notoccur. If the application is up-held by the court, the SHA will berequired to quash its decision.The application has been made bya resident living in the area to befluoridated, legally represented byLeigh Day & Co Solicitors(www.leighday.co.uk.)Hampshire Against Fluoridationwas approached by the legal rep-resentatives to submit a witnessstatement to clarify certain as-pects of the consultation process.The statement was prepared byHAF member Stephen Peckham .It set out: examples of misleadinginformation put forward by SHAduring and after the consultationprocess and examples of evidenceput forward in response to theconsultation that was not prop-erly considered by the SHA.HAF, like local MP Julian Lewisand County Councillor DavidHarrison, has submitted a com-plaint to the Health Ombudsmanabout the conduct of the consul-tation and bias in the use of evi-dence and the final decisionreached. The Ombudsman is cur-rently seeking legal opinion abouttheir powers in relation to thesecomplaints.There is no doubt that the con-sultation papers were biased andmuch important evidence wasclearly simply ignored by theSHA Board. Of particular con-cern is the insistence by the SHAthat everyone should have sentthem full copies of any articles ordocuments that were referred towhen people responded to theconsultation. These were notasked for during the consultationbut we are now told that theSHA did not look at any evi-dence that was not supplied tothem. This seems absurd and isreally moving the goal posts tosuit themselves. Amazingly theSHA has set aside another£400,000 of public money tocontest the legal case. This is ontop of the £100,000s wastedalready on the flawed consulta-tion. If the SHA is instructed torerun the consultation then thiswill involve even more NHSmoney at a time when we knowthat NHS funds are under in-creasing pressure!
with fluoridation against the wishesof too many people. I think it would be better if the SHA were toplace the implementation of its
decision on hold.”
Alan Whitehead MP attendedour meeting in Parliament andpromised to work with JulianLewis, Sandra Gidley and ChrisHuhne to put pressure on theDepartment of Health and theSHA to put their decision onhold. While both MPs havestated their support for waterfluoridation, HAF welcomestheir support as it will force theSHA to re-examine their deci-sion.Their change of view also ech-oes that of Southampton Citycouncillor Jeremy Moulton whosupported water fluoridation inthe City Council vote but hassince expressed concerns about
the SHA’s decision. Perhaps it is
time for other councillors tostand up and give their views? If they truly represent their elec-torate then the Council shouldexamine this issue again andtake more notice of the evi-dence and local people. Contactyour councillor to find out whatthey think about this issue. HAFhave details of how all the citycouncillors voted.Following months of silenceabout the SHA consultation andwide spread protest at the deci-sion to approve water fluorida-tion in Southampton, Eastleigh,Totton and Netley, the twoSouthampton MPS have finally joined with other local MPs tocall on the SHA to rethink itsdecision. John Denham MP,newly appointed as CommunitiesMinister, wrote in the Daily Echo
“
The SHA took its original decisionknowing that fluoridation had not been popularly supported in either
the consultation or opinion polls. …
There is a real danger of proceeding
Southampton MPs call on theSHA to put fluoride decision on hold
John DenhamMP says:
I think it would be better if theSHA were to place theimplementationof its decision
on hold.”
HAF Chairman John Spottiswoodewelcomed thenews of a judicialreview. This would add another pointof pressure on theSHA on top of our public campaignand complaints tothe Health Om-budsman. We need to keep pressureup locally and it isimportant that wekeep writing toour local council-lors, MPs and tothe SHA. Pleasecontinue to sup- port our localcampaign.
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HAF July Newsletter
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