Quest to build medical centre
Fire service court threat over £10m Fund-raiser needs to raise cash for African project
A CASH-STRAPPED fire service has been threatened with court if it does not pay a £10m government bill within weeks.
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) is facing a financial black hole over a Home Office demand to repay cash mistakenly over-claimed from a pensions top-up fund between 2006/07 and 2011/12.
After seven years of budget cuts totalling £22m, fire chiefs are desperate to negotiate a deal to lessen the blow of the repayment.
But a leaked letter reveals the government is not willing to negotiate, imposing a two-and-a-half week deadline for TWFRS to sort out a repayment plan or face an invoice for over £10m outright.
Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council and vice-chair of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority, said: “There will be multi-million pound cuts to firefighting budgets directly as a result of the Home Office’s macho grandstanding.
“There is still time for the Government to avoid this.” A NORTH East charity fundraiser has taken on the challenge of building a ‘placenta pit’ to complete a new medical centre in a far-flung African village.
Professional financial adviser Philippa West, from Weardale, will travel more than 3,700 miles with 11 other volunteers to the remote village of Buh, in North-West Cameroon, in October, as part of a national fundraising group.
But before they go, the group needs to raise £11,500 which will fund urgent finishing touches to a new medical centre which will serve around 6,000 people in Buh and surrounding villages.
The project, which is managed and funded through international charity AidCamps and its fundraising campaigns, is already part-completed.
The extra cash raised by Philippa and her team will help to cover the cost of new showers and toilets as well as a placenta pit, which enables pathological and medical waste to degrade naturally.
The 26-year-old said: “We are hoping to raise around £11,500 to provide the local community with a functioning rural health centre as well as to work alongside the local healthcare professions.
“We aim to work in partnership with the local community to deliver sustainable, long-term healthcare and to build on the considerable efforts the community has already made so far in realising their desire to have access to maternity and health services.
“Our aim is to make this a reality with them, but to do this we need to support the community to complete the building of an appropriate clinic, to provide the most basic of medical equipment and supplies of both medical consumables such as bandages and needles, and drugs. The local population will purchase these items from the clinic.
“Our work is aimed at helping the health centre to become functional in order that the community can make continued use of it.”
Philippa is a director with financial planning and investment management firm Three Counties, which is based in Bournmoor, County Durham, and has been helping her fundraising efforts.
She said: “We’ve already raised money through various events and donations from colleagues and some of our clients.
“We need to hit our target before we go and we have just over a couple of months to do it, but we’re confident we’ll get there!”
Philippa and the team of fundraisers, who are based around the country, will travel from Heathrow Airport to Douala in Cameroon on October 29 and are due to return on November 14.
AidCamps International is a UKbased registered charity which takes volunteers to developing countries to take part in short-term voluntary projects. Donations can be made via Phillipa’s fundraising page at www. aidcamps.org/philippawest.aspx