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Column 286

Murphy, Paul

Oakes, Rt Hon Gordon

O'Brien, Michael (N W'kshire)

O'Brien, William (Normanton)

O'Hara, Edward

Olner, William

O'Neill, Martin

Orme, Rt Hon Stanley

Paisley, Rev Ian

Parry, Robert

Patchett, Terry

Pendry, Tom

Pickthall, Colin

Pike, Peter L.

Pope, Greg

Powell, Ray (Ogmore)

Prentice, Ms Bridget (Lew'm E)

Prentice, Gordon (Pendle)

Prescott, John

Primarolo, Dawn

Purchase, Ken

Quin, Ms Joyce

Radice, Giles

Randall, Stuart

Raynsford, Nick

Redmond, Martin

Reid, Dr John

Rendel, David

Richardson, Jo

Robertson, George (Hamilton)

Robinson, Geoffrey (Co'try NW)

Robinson, Peter (Belfast E)

Roche, Mrs. Barbara

Rogers, Allan

Rooker, Jeff

Rooney, Terry

Ross, Ernie (Dundee W)

Rowlands, Ted

Ruddock, Joan

Salmond, Alex

Sedgemore, Brian

Sheerman, Barry

Shore, Rt Hon Peter

Short, Clare

Simpson, Alan

Skinner, Dennis

Smith, Andrew (Oxford E)

Smith, C. (Isl'ton S & F'sbury)

Smith, Rt Hon John (M'kl'ds E)

Smith, Llew (Blaenau Gwent)

Snape, Peter

Soley, Clive

Spearing, Nigel

Spellar, John

Squire, Rachel (Dunfermline W)

Steel, Rt Hon Sir David

Steinberg, Gerry

Stevenson, George

Strang, Dr. Gavin

Straw, Jack

Taylor, Mrs Ann (Dewsbury)

Taylor, Matthew (Truro)

Thompson, Jack (Wansbeck)

Tipping, Paddy

Turner, Dennis

Tyler, Paul

Vaz, Keith

Walker, Rt Hon Sir Harold

Wallace, James

Walley, Joan

Wardell, Gareth (Gower)

Wareing, Robert N

Watson, Mike

Welsh, Andrew

Wicks, Malcolm

Wigley, Dafydd

Williams, Rt Hon Alan (Sw'n W)

Williams, Alan W (Carmarthen)

Wilson, Brian

Winnick, David

Wise, Audrey

Worthington, Tony

Wright, Dr Tony

Young, David (Bolton SE)

Tellers for the Noes :

Mr. Alan Meale and

Mr. Jon Owen Jones.

Question accordingly agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House welcomes the new spending plans set out in the Budget statement presented by Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer on 30th November ; congratulates Her Majesty's Government on its policy of reducing the share of national income taken by the public sector ; welcomes the contribution which is being made by firm control of public spending to reducing the PSBR, so providing conditions for sustainable recovery ; supports the increased spending planned in priority areas and the pressure being applied to the Government's own costs ; and commends the Government's determination to maintain sound public finance and improve value for the taxpayers' money.

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Column 287

PETITION

RAF Chivenor

11.25 pm

Mr. Nick Harvey (North Devon) : I have the honour to present a petition from the people of north Devon concerning the future of RAF Chivenor, a much-loved part of the local community. The petition has been signed by 34,601 people, which represents more than half of the voting public in that scattered, rural population. The

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Column 288

Government have invited public responses to the proposal from today and I believe that this petition will represent a strong response. The petition reads :

Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House will recognise that RAF Chivenor is a highly operationally effective unit, having had millions of pounds spent on upgrading the facilities ; that the favourable weather conditions and low air traffic in the surrounding area facilitate maximum flying hours ; that over many years an excellent relationship has been built up with the local community ; that RAF Chivenor provides essential air-sea rescue services ; and that RAF Chivenor is essential to the local economy, and will therefore urge the Secretary of State for Defence in his study of training facilities to retain it as an operational flying unit.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc. To lie upon the Table.

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Column 289

Great Yarmouth and Waveney Health Authority

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.-- [Mr. Arbuthnot.]

11.26 pm

Mr. Michael Carttiss (Great Yarmouth) : I am grateful for the opportunity to protest on behalf of my constituents in Great Yarmouth against the Government's decision to accept East Anglian regional health authority's recommendation to split Great Yarmouth and Waveney health district.

I am honoured to see here with me the Chief Whip, some of whose constituents belong to the James Paget hospital catchment area, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House and my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North (Mr. Thompson), together with other colleagues and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State. Since the inception of the national health service 45 years ago, Waveney and Great Yarmouth have been treated as one health community. The old Great Yarmouth general hospital and Lowestoft general hospital, serving what we now call the Waveney district, were in the same hospital group for hospital management services when the NHS was set up--that also included the Norwich hospitals. Waveney and Great Yarmouth was treated as one district in the old Norfolk area health authority from 1973-74, which is when I became a member of that health authority. I well remember the difficulties we had in Great Yarmouth and Waveney in getting Norwich people to give us any attention.

Great Yarmouth and Waveney health authority was established when the districts were created about 13 years ago. For all that time, Waveney and Great Yarmouth have been treated as one health district. The James Paget hospital was built at the southern end of my constituency to serve Great Yarmouth and the Waveney district, replacing the two general hospitals to which I have referred. Unlike my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State, whose great uncle was a Prime Minister, my great uncle and grandfather worked on the land in Filby where I live now. I am sure that the Prime Minister to whom I refer, who held office in the early part of the century, would have shared my grandfather's view--although he was not a Liberal-- that if it works, do not mend it.

We have a situation which works in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, but the East Anglian health authority proposes to split it up. It proposes to merge Yarmouth with Norwich to create an East Norfolk health authority, and to put Waveney with the Suffolk authority. Decisions which affect people in Yarmouth and in Waveney which have been taken for the past 20 years within our district will now be decided in Ipswich for the Suffolk end and in Norwich for the Norfolk end.

My local newspaper, the Great Yarmouth Mercury, reported : "Opposition is stacked up against the changes planned for the local health service. The medical staff is solidly against the shake-up, and it has even united the Labour and Tory sides at Great Yarmouth Town Hall."

When East Anglian regional health authority launched its consultation exercise in the summer, it presented four options about which it talked widely with various people who submitted their views. The general view was that local

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