There were villagers over there in the east believing that they were to get the new ‘village hospital’ they have eagerly awaited for the past 20 years – and then up pops a weasel!
What’s more it isn’t half a pound of tuppeny rice that is about to buy Cranleigh and the surrounding villages a proposed 60-bed private nursing home, ten social care beds and ten community beds – it was millions of pounds of their money following two-decades of local fundraising.
Decades ago the parish council was duped into handing over a former recreation ground owned by the parish to local charity – Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust – in return for land swapped by a man villagers now describe as a ‘local benefucter.’ Self-same benefucter who has trousered millions for a huge development of 265 homes in Elm Bridge Road.
The CVH Trust was going to build a replacement hospital plus a day hospital and 14 beds following the closure of one of the oldest cottage hospitals in the country on theparish land. Now same trust is going to present its cunning plans to the council to build a nursing home for A-One, a countrywide private care company. It will tell how it will – solve the county council’s social care bed crisis with 10 beds, allowing it to sell off the defunct Long Fields nursing home site in Ewhurst Road. Before its closure three years ago it boasted 50+ beds,. Now thanks to the ‘Charity’ it can trouser the cash from the sale of land to help fill the big black hole at Surrey county towers! This leaves Cranleigh with minus 40 social care beds, but 60 private commercial rate beds costing?
Now there’s a question – how much?
The ten beds community beds are for…? Wait for it, yes, you guessed patients from among the 25 GP practices that make up the Guildford & Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group! So much for localism?
We should also mention that the private for profit THREE-STOREY nursing home, built on valuable parish land also comes with a 26 block of residential flats and… two access – one from Knowle Lane immediateky alongside Whisker Drive the other along the parish owned road to the Snoxhall Playing Fields! What does the parish council get out of this? Pop along and you may find out?
You can read past posts here:
Cranleigh’s proposed new private nursing home is provoking a local storm.
Angry of Cranleigh wrote to us here at the Waverley Web, saying he had just spotted on the parish noticeboard that ‘THE TRUSTWORTHY TRUST,’ as it was depicted in a local magazine recently, is to present its plans to the parish council, tonight Thursday at 7p.m. Council Offices, Village Way.
Perhaps our little spider sould be climbing up said parish council office wall- because when villagers get to hear where their treacle has gone – they may want to climb a few walls too?
Cranleigh gets more like Farnham every day – in a word SHAFTED!
ranleigh Village Hospital Trust (CVHT), in partnership with HC-One, NHS Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group (G&W CCG), Surrey County Council (SCC) and the Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH), is proposing the return of free at the point of access community beds to Cranleigh.
The project will deliver 20 community beds for both NHS and SCC nursing care, prioritised for patients from Cranleigh and the surrounding villages, replacing the 14 beds in Cranleigh Village Hospital that were closed in 2006. In addition, the project will create affordable accommodation for healthcare workers employed locally.
The new facilities will be located in the heart of the village off Knowle Lane, adjacent to the Village Way car park and will also include 60 open-market care home beds, operated by HC-One.
CVHT was noble and everyone who raised funds and worked so hard did so in good faith. The money raised was spent reasonably and accountably on trying to get the powers that be to agree as they seemed to do at the outset. This solution suits no-one but is better than no beds for Cranleigh and everyone needs to get on with their lives if they can. Neither the NHS nor CVHT is responsible for the story that unfolded – it evolved – let this solution be – I believe it’s the best that can be done – at least along the way our GPS found the fund for their own new build and the cottage hospital will be used and developed with NHS and league of friends money. If the care home ever gets built – we will probably all decide it’s great after all.
Perhaps you would confirm whether you are the official spokesperson for the Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust, as we have been unable to confirm whether this is the case despite exhaustive enquiries? However our sources, within the Guildford & Waverley CCG, and the League of Friends tell us this it will not be possible to prioritise for any particular area, as beds cannot be kept open and must be used for patients within the G & W Commissioning Care Group and there are ony ten beds available. The remainder are social care beds governed by Surrey County Council. However we understand that should a patient from say Guildford require care at the same time as a Cranleigh area patient – then it is “hoped” to accommodate the “local” person.
Here at the Waverley Web we hope that the generous “local” donors who gave money for the venture will eventually agree with your comments -” that once the private nursing home is built “it will be great after all.”
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Hi anon
I am surprised my name is not known â or are you having a laugh!
I like many have worked hard to help many of Cranleighâs projects get off the ground â never alone but often there, raising funds and awareness â skate park, play park, kids clubs, CVHT
I too was unnerved about the money I personally raised being used the way it has been and have had to accept that the NHS parameters have kept changing and the charity trustees have truly done their best with each heave â some dying some becoming very ill â it has to stop somewhere. When the trustees developed the care home model they had previously been encouraged to work and spend to a) keep the old hospital open, then b) build a new one WITH the GPs, then c) build a hospital that wonât be supported or used by the NHS! So then d) a care home model with beds â as all care homes have â available for various hospitals and GPs to use â exactly in the same way as the original hospital beds were used. It is interesting to note that the care home route has very recently gone out of fashion with the NHS but contracts have been signed and who knows â cottage hospitals may be brought back across the land but not in this set of trustees life times it seems.
Where is your answer WW â I feel awful about all the time and effort I put in and all the others â but I do not believe any money has been wasted, I know the trustees and their friends have GIVEN masses of their valuable time trying to solve all he issues â let it be â unless you can see what else could be done. By the way â do you vilify national charities for not saving the lives of â say â African babies â no! you accept that trustees do their best.
Yours sincerely â not anonymously –
Mrs Sue M Dale
Maraquita,
42 Horsham Road,
CRANLEIGH
Surrey
GU6 8DU
01483 272987
07946590347
suemdale@gmail.com
We do apologise for not knowing who you are? Probably all the good folks of Cranleigh do, as it would appear you are a local fundraiser and general supporter and promoter of local ventures. Well done you.
However, this particular project does sound as though it has been fraught with difficulties, and although we do not fully understand all the ramifications of the comings and goings of – the new hospital/GP practices/nursing homes – private or otherwise and the role of the old vilage hospital, we are sure you do?
Your assurances that the money raised by the local charity has not been wasted, will we are sure, be accepted, or not, as the case may be, by the donors. However, we have heard here at the contact@waverleyweb,org that some donors, have asked for their money to be returned, believing that the present scheme bears no resemblance to the original? These requests have been refused.
The WW does not vilify any national charities, however public trust in some has deteriorated for a variety of reasons in recent years and not without good cause.
Take the Memorial Hall here in Farnham as a prime example!
Thank you Mrs Dale for your explanation, which we hope will reassure the people of Cranleigh and beyond.