News Archive

April 2005

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4 April 2005

Miners’ Coal Claims: Handling Fees

MPs have recently been raising concerns in Parliament about the fees charged by some solicitors and claims management companies to ex-miners for their coal health compensation claims.

Tony Wright is now asking constituents who have been charged success or administration fees to tell him of their experiences.

He said:

“The Law Society is investigating the issue of charges for coal health claims and this is now being followed up in Westminster.

I have heard a number of worrying stories of inappropriate charging by solicitors or claims companies but need as many examples as possible so that we have chapter and verse to take this forward.

I am therefore calling on local ex-miners and their families to let me know if they feel that they have been ripped off by these firms.”

If you feel that you have been charged an inappropriate handling fee, please contact Tony Wright’s constituency office – details below.

4 April 2005

Tony Wright pledges support for campaign to restore Hednesford War Memorial to former glory

This week Tony Wright applauded the efforts of all those who are working to restore Hednesford War Memorial and pledged his own support to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

Tony Wright chairs the CHAPS group (Chase Art in Public Spaces) that recently installed the memorial in Cannock to the area’s mining heritage and is developing further projects across the district.

Speaking this week, Tony Wright said:

“I am delighted to give my personal backing to the project to restore the Hednesford War Memorial to its former glory, and I applaud the efforts of all those who have already taken up this cause.

The memorial in Hednesford is very special, and I would like to see it opened up to the town in the way it once was. This means looking at the whole site, which is a big task, but this generation has a duty to generations past and future to ensure that it is done.

I hope everyone in the community will give their enthusiastic support to this project, as many have already done, so that the townspeople of Hednesford can recapture the glory of this wonderful memorial.”

4 April 2005

MP Calls Chase Line Meeting – Central Trains to Meet Commuters

Do you use the Chase Line rail service regularly? If so, you are invited to a meeting called by Tony Wright MP to meet Central Trains to discuss concerns about the standards and reliability of the service. 

The Managing Director of Central Trains, Nigel Pennington, and Central Line Manager, Dave Harris, will

The meeting will take place

on Friday 8^th April 2005

at 6.30pm

at Lea Hall Miners’ Welfare Club, Sandy Lane, Rugeley.

Tony Wright said:

“This service is potentially a great asset to the Cannock Chase area but it is simply not reliable enough at present for commuters, or shoppers, or visitors.

I have met with Central Trains on a number of occasions and now it’s the turn of rail users to have their say about the future of the service.

I’m sure that they will be left in no doubt about how much we value this service but that patience is running out and we must now see real and lasting improvements.”

7 April 2005

MP Calls for More Organ Donors

Tony Wright has called for more Cannock Chase people to register as organ donors to support the 10^th anniversary of the NHS Organ Donor Register’s appeal to register one million more donors

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the establishment of the Register. Over the last 12 months 1 million people have signed onto the Register, which is a confidential database of names confirming an individual’s wish to be a donor in the event of their death.

Currently over 12 million people in the UK – 20% of the population – are registered but the Government want to see this increase to 16 million buy 2010.

Tony Wright said:

“In this anniversary year, want to encourage more people to register as organ donors.

Thousands of lives have been saved and many thousands more lives improved as a result if transplants, but there are far more people waiting for the donation of an organ to meet their particular needs.

Signing up and making sure your relatives are aware of your wish will help these people and will help NHS staff ensure that your wishes are being carried out.”

Tony Wright is urging local residents to contact the Organ Donor line on

0845 60 60 400.

7 April 2005

Open Invitation To CHAPS Art Day

Tony Wright MP is inviting all who are interested in public art or in the area’s mining history to come along to the CHAPS (Chase Art in Public Spaces) Public Art Day

            At The Aquarius, Hednesford

            On Saturday 16^th April

            From 9.30 am – 3 pm.

Dr Wright is Chair of the CHAPS group, which completed its first project to commemorate the area’s mining history last November, with the erection of a sculpture at Queen’s Square Island in Cannock.

 The group is now pushing ahead with its project of a miner’s lamp memorial in Hednesford town centre, including a “buy a brick” scheme to record the names of individual miners and mining families. A number of other projects under the CHAPS umbrella are being promoted and will be on display.

Tony Wright said:

“I am delighted that so many local people have shown their enthusiasm for these projects. This will be their chance to see the progress being made, and for others to come on board.

There is a lot of hard work going on in the background. This gives CHAPS a chance to showcase our proposals and for other groups and societies associated with either public art or mining history to be part of them.

We are rightly proud of the area’s heritage. Now at last it is being recognised through public art works. I am very grateful to all of those individuals and groups who are contributing to this, and also to the Arts Development Officers of Cannock Chase Council for their support for CHAPS.

Come along and join us!

CHAPS will also be holding one of their regular meetings during the open day at 11am.

8 April 2005

Tony Wright takes local retired miners to meet Minister

Last week, Tony Wright MP took a delegation of local ex-miners from the Cannock Chase Retired Miners & Officials Pensions and Health Claims Association to meet DTI Minister Nigel Griffiths in London.

This was a follow-up to an earlier meeting last year, with miners’ pensions and coal health claim compensation being the main issues discussed.

Tony Wright said:

“This was a very positive meeting both on the pensions issue and on the health claims scheme.

The big breakthrough was that the Minister agreed to broker a meeting on the pensions issue between a representative of the Retired Miners Association and he pension trustees, which is something we have wanted for a long time.”

For the Retired Miners’ Association, Tom Christopher said:

“The Association would like to thank Tony Wright for his key role in getting this breakthrough which would not have happened without his lead.

The Association has tried for years to meet with the pensions trustees but have been denied. Now we have some real progress, and we thank Tony Wright on behalf of all ex-miners in Cannock Chase for what he has done for us."

11 April 2005

Tony Wright Vows to Keep Up Pressure on MRSA

Tony Wright MP today pledged to keep up the fight against MRSA, after revealing that his own 95 year old father had died with MRSA in hospital five years ago. As a result of this, Tony Wright had been one of the first MPs to press for the full recording of MRSA rates in hospitals and for effective action to tackle the bug.

Speaking today, Tony Wright said:

“I am determined to do all I can to see that the fight against MRSA is effective. The tragedy is that the bug was not tackled when it rose fast in our hospitals in the 1990s, since when rates have been largely stable. The latest figures show the first fall, which is obviously an encouraging sign, but we need to keep up the pressure.

The Government has a target of reducing the figure by 60% over the next three years. This is a very challenging target but we have to do everything we can to meet it and hospitals now have this as a central part of how they are inspected.

This issue is too important to be used as a political football. We just have to concentrate on tackling it. We should also remember that MRSA exists in all healthcare systems and in the community, but that for normal healthy people it causes no problems and that where it does cause problems specific drugs can be effective. But my own family experience – as well as cases like that of Olivia Clarke – makes me determined to do whatever I can to ensure that MRSA is banished as far as possible from our hospitals and that we are at least as effective as any other country in tackling these new kinds of superbug.”

11 April 2005

Train bosses face to face with passengers at packed local meeting

Last Friday evening the bosses of Central Trains – the operators of the Chase Line service to Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley – came face to face with disgruntled passengers at a meeting convened by Tony Wright as part of his campaign to get improvements to the line.

The meeting, held in Rugeley at the Lea Hall Club, drew a large attendance of passengers and enabled them to quiz Central Train bosses about all the service and reliability issues with the line.

Speaking after the meeting, Tony Wright said:

“I had asked Central Trains to come and meet their passengers from Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley face to face. The fact that so many people turned out on a Friday evening shows just how much people care about this service and the need to make it more reliable and satisfactory.

It was a very frank discussion, on both sides, with Central Trains admitting that the present service was not good enough and passengers telling them of all the problems and frustrations that this caused them.

However the good news is that those responsible for this service said they were determined to get it to a satisfactory level and were tackling the various issues that were causing the present difficulties. WE shall have to see if this turns out to be the case, and there will be follow-up meetings to check on progress.

11 April 2005

Tony Wright Pays Tribute to Cllr Reg Cooper

Tony Wright MP has paid tribute to Councillor Reg Copper, Leader of Cannock Chase Council, who died last week.

Tony Wright said:

“I am so sad at what has happened, especially as Reg seemed to be picking up so well after his operation.

Reg and I always used to ask each other about how we were, as we were both on chemotherapy, and I sent him a message of support before his operation. We may have belonged to different parties but that did not stop us being friends.

Reg was a thoroughly decent man and a devoted servant of the community. We shall miss him greatly and I mourn his passing.”