Town Council fury at further delays to access scheme at Alfreton Station
After accepting an invite from the Town Council, representatives from Network Rail attended the full council meeting on Tuesday evening to explain to members why there has been a further delay to the schemes to provide step free access to platform 2. Members heard how the scheme had been deferred in 2019 due to Government cuts, but had been due to start construction at the start of this year. A combination of inflationary pressures, budget challenges set by the government, and the pandemic were cited as the reasons for the most recent delays. Network Rail apologised to the Council and wider community for the latest delays.
The meeting pressed for some assurances the project would still go ahead and was advised that a design review and tendering process would consume much of this year, and with a construction period of up to nine months completion by early 2024 was now anticipated. The meeting was also informed that the agreed taxi provision by the rail companies for disabled passengers unable to reach platform 2 was not widely advertised, and that a councillor had witnessed a disabled passengers being misadvised by train staff to proceed to Langley Mill to change trains.
Councillor Scott Walker said ‘it is clear that the root cause of the delays rest with central government and I urge our local MP Nigel Mills to turn his repeated broken promises into firm action with his government colleagues. Levelling up for Alfreton has so far seen our direct London Services cut, our regional services reduced by around 35% with 48 hours notes, threats of closure to our ticket office, and promised funds for the access scheme spent in Market Harborough.” The meeting resolved to write to Gary Walsh, East Midlands Route Director for Network Rail pressing for urgent progress, and share the latest update with the Derbyshire Law Society asking them to bring litigation against Network Rail under the Equalities Act. The meeting further agreed to write to East Midlands Railway and Northern Rail seeking confirmation of their provision for disabled passengers, and details of the training provided to station and train staff for these arrangements.
Full details of the Network Rail update can be found here: Network Rail update on Alfreton Station May 2022
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Notice of Parish Meeting
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White Post Farm comes to Alfreton!
EMAS has put out more ambulance resource than ever before. However, the combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands, have led to this level of escalation.
Declaring a critical incident includes a formal ask of partner services to take immediate action to help mitigate the risk for people in our communities, including:
Rapid release of ambulances from hospital departments. We appreciate this will be challenging for hospital colleagues however, we need to ensure we have emergency ambulances available to respond to people waiting in the community where life is at threat.
From the morning, local NHS Clinical Hubs to take Category 3 calls (see additional notes) from EMAS and provide support and/or a local alternative NHS pathway for these patient. This allows EMAS to focus on responding to Category 1 (life-threatening) and Category 2 (serious) calls.
All Category 3 calls (see additional information below) from NHS 111 receive a clinical validation from DHU Healthcare (the provider of 111 services) before it is sent for an ambulance.
Like many across the NHS, EMAS colleagues have been working tirelessly to respond to patient need. All internal actions and options to mitigate risk have been exhausted; therefore, a critical incident has been called to ensure mutual aid to support delivery of emergency and urgent patient care.
The public is asked to help by using NHS services wisely and by taking regular medication to manage long-term conditions. If your illness or injury is not immediately life-threatening, please seek alternative care via a pharmacy, urgent treatment centre, or general practitioner (including out of hours services) – visit the NHS website for services near you: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/services-near-you/
Given the additional weather-related pressures being responded to by emergency services across the East Midlands, please act responsibly and do not take unnecessary risks.
Additional information:
Given the severity of the concern, senior leaders will continue to respond to the challenges faced and to ensure support for staff and volunteers at work. Therefore, media interviews will not be conducted tonight. Media requests should be sent via communications@emas.nhs.uk and will be responded to tomorrow.
This is the first time that East Midlands Ambulance Service has declared a Critical Incident.
In response to pressures in the NHS system and on ambulance services, on Tuesday 26 November 2024, EMAS escalated to Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) Level 4 – the highest level which indicates a potential for failures within the service. The service has remained at REAP Level 4 since then.
The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework describes a critical incident as: ‘any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal functions.
NHS England Ambulance Response Programme states Category 3 calls are for urgent calls such as abdominal pains, and which will include patients to be treated in their own home. The aim is to respond to these patients at least nine out of 10 times within 120 minutes.