By Imagine a Derby with 327 fewer doctors, 701 fewer nurses and 92 fewer midwives. Picture a Derby where 13 of our new schools suddenly ceased to exist, where they were either replaced by older, less appropriate buildings or by no provision at all. Or visualise a Derby without the nine children’s centres built in the last 13 years, and where the 10 others created as extensions to schools simply weren’t there anymore.
Would it be a poorer place to live? Would you worry about the medical provision, particularly for elderly or vulnerable people? Would you be concerned about the quality of education, or the out-of-hours offering for children?
Thankfully, that vision of Derby is no longer a reality. But, unbelievably, just 13 years ago, it was.
Since 1997, Labour investment in health services has created all those extra posts for doctors, nurses and midwives, including the creation of a state-of-the-art hospital. That is why the lengthy waiting lists that were commonplace under the Tories have been eliminated. It’s how the NHS in Derby is able to treat people in need of medical treatment quickly. And it’s why people no longer die while waiting for urgent operations.
Labour’s commitment to education has brought the building of all those new schools and children’s centres, as well as two new colleges in the Joseph Wright Centre and the Roundhouse. Record numbers of teachers and teaching assistants have been appointed, helping many more of our young people to achieve their full potential.
But that’s not all that’s changed. Transport in Derby is unrecognisable since Labour swept to power in 1997, with a new bus station set to open in the coming weeks, a new railway station being development and a new ring road under construction.
It’s pretty incredible when you look at Derby now and you think about how things have changed since 1997. Over the years you tend not to notice as things gradually change around you, but it’s when you sit back and reflect on how things were and how they are now that you really appreciate the leaps forward that have been made.
And that’s just in Derby. Take a look at the national picture and it’s clear to see the improvements to the quality of life for people in Britain. A rising minimum wage has lifted many people out of poverty, while pensioners now benefit from winter fuel payments and free use of the national bus network. Crime has been slashed since 1997, with a 36% drop overall. Domestic burglary has fallen by 54%, vehicle-related crime by 57% and violent crime is down by 41%.
Initiatives that were long overdue under the old Tory government have been brought forward, like making it free for people to see their country’s artefacts at museums and art galleries.
And, of course, it was the Labour government that listened to the people and finally outlawed fox hunting after years of Tory support for this barbaric pastime. Indeed fox hunting was once described as the Tory Party at play.
With a General Election coming up, and after 13 years of Labour rule, it’s only healthy that people are challenging the Government to keep on improving things.
But the days of Margaret Thatcher and John Major are behind us. Britain generally, and Derby specifically, is a far better place to live now as a result.
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I avoid it - such a depressing place. You can almost feel the public-sectorness of it, there is very little true enterprise apart from historic bright spots such as Rolls-Royce.
Not a place to be during inevitable public sector cuts I fear. Other posters are spot on - unless a City has an organic, entrepreneurial spirit it feels moribund. Throwing other people's money around does-not-work.
I stayed at the Jurys a few weeks ago and I couldnt believe they allowed the hotel to be built with no car parking. The ring road has always been a nightmare and shows no sign of improvement. Westfields sucks life out of everything around it and is possibly the most badly conceived idea since er...the same company demolished the heart of Bradford (another city that sits in the shadow of a more popular place).
The new bus station has all the architectural merit of a set of duplo building blocks.
If you can actually find the railway station it is still poorly equipped and depressing - despite the revamp.
Derby is like Walsall - you can try everything to "regenerate" the place but some places need vision rather than the cookie cutter that seems to have happened. We need to reclaim our cities - make them unique. Derby has tried to attract the same shops into it as Nottingham. That was never going to work.
Derby could have done a Brighton or a Hebdon Bridge - become a haven for small indi's and artists - it's sadly lacking in the midlands.
I also would think that many in Derby - especially in the rail industry would paint a less than rosy picture of Labour in Derby this last decade.
If you want Indi and artists in the Midlands you'd find that in Leamington Spa. Very much like Brighton without the coast.
You are spot on about Derby though. Awful, awful place.
I could do with a blast down the M69!
If the quality of life is so great thanks to Labour why has the UK slipped now down to 25th place in that particular league table?
In my youth Derby was a key centre of manufacturing excellence, now poor devils are dependent on unsustainable Public Sector jobs.
All the money spent did not actually produce any Private Sector profit making companies, so when the cuts come later this year as this cannot be afforded any longer I hope you will remember to blame Labour for the massive job losses and cuts to services.
There is no free lunch - you can't keep spending so much more than tax reciepts, and you can't keep borrowing either.
At a guess, a lot of those schools and hospitals are PFI as well, which means they are effectively just leased by the state.
This is another reason I worry greatly about the Tories coming to power and slashing public services; it's at it's most basic level of funding already.This would have huge implications for public safety and management of crime.
Whoever comes to power is going to have to make cuts, but money is not the only way to improve our police services.
I'm sure my friend Richard and other bobbies would have a few suggestions regarding paperwork etc.
It's not inconsistent. They don't vote for what you've done. They especially don't vote for things you've done that they don't care about. Things you've done that they care about might be seen as a good sign that you'll do other good things in the future, so long as you can make the link. Things you've done that they don't care about don't even have that merit.
Didnt someone say "if you repaet a lie often enough then people will belive it" or something simerler?
Danny
It's mentioned once today already in PPC Profile: Maryam Khan. Is it on some kind of checklist?
I'd be very interested to hear about how this agenda of "regeneration" has had either positive or negative effects on cities up and down the country... and how local people experience this on their doorsteps.
However, I am really sorry to say I do not share this vision of Derby.
My overall impression is one of Derby's beautiful historic character and architecture being completely overshadowed by ugly concrete and steel clad structures such as Westfields and the Jury's Inn.
No one would have objected to any of this had it been built on the periphery of the small city centre- rather than smack bang in the middle of an historical market town.
Local traders and busineses have suffered greatly, as has been well documnted.Westfields is on a huge scale and appears to have sucked the life out of the city centre and the Cathedral Quarter.
Local people do not appear to have been consulted on any aspect of planning- to a city that belongs to them too.
It's one thing to "regenerate" a town or city; but this has to be done sensitively and tastefully- not with the equaivalent of a giant mallett- and "plonking" giant concrete monstrosities on top of a small historic city, thereby virtually destroying its whole character.
We appreciate the need to generate wealth and attract businesses/tourists.But has anyone ever considered at Cityscape/council- that Derby's greatest asset is its history and character of the town?!
Visitors will surely not be attracted purely to a giant shopping mall that can be found anywhere, or many independent shops closing down in the Cathedral Quarter?
Is all that matters money and profit- at the expense of the enviroment and losing so much heritage?
I am genuinely sorry to say, many locals' comments are: "Derby's been ruined." I hope this is not forever, as there are still many assets, and on the edge of fantastic Derbyshire countryside.
A string of spectacularly bad decisions by the Labour/Tory coalition that ran the council has done serious and maybe irreversible harm to the historic and social character of Derby.
I predict that the Liberals will increase their majority on Derby council and take the Derby North parliamentary seat, thanks in large part to Labour councillors like Chris Williamson and their spectacularly ill-conceived alliance with the local Tories.
The new, giant, Westfield shopping centre, appears to have sucked the life out of a lot of the other shopping streets, leaving many shops empty.
The railway station seems to have been under development for most of the last decade.
I am surprised that the author applauds the Labour Government for building a new bus station. In order to build it, the original bus station was demolished. The original Derby Bus Station was built in 1933 in the Art Deco style and was the first of its kind in the world, with railway-style platforms.
How that building's demolition can be considered 'progress' baffles me.
And do you seriously believe that for voters in Derby, passing legislation about fox-hunting is anything other than self-indulgence by the political classes?
Please be consistent, do voters vote based on what you've done (improved services, ban on fox hunting) or not?
Nice new bulidings (pfi ) do not alone improve education , you say briton is a far better place to live , for who? Workers that had there tax doubled? and the rise in council tax year on year? The gap between rich and poor has widend , A Labour goverment that wants to punish the disabled (the torys agree) With the Welfare reforms , The white working class feel alienated , white boys are failing at school (far worse than any other group) , And no more boom and bust , Thats where we are after 13 years in power(i am not going to mention Iraq) , under our watch we have seen two BNP meps elected plus bnp local councillors (some in my area) , How is this a fair briton?
Danny
I have great memories of the place when I used to pop up there. Still has a lot of problems though, it is infinitely better than it was under the Tories.
It has been some years since I asked for a "bacon and egg cob!" and was referred to as "ducky!".
Wonderful place and my favorite pub was the Silk Mill.