David Ruffley

Cheerful toddlers are jumping for joy after their new-look £100,000 pre-school was officially opened.
For the last couple of years, the 34 children at the pre-school have been based at a Salvation Army hall, but now they have their own building, complete with a fun play area.

The move came about after local farmer Robert Honeywood offered the pre-school some land at a peppercorn rate and funds were secured from several organisations.

THE NHS in the region remains more than £90million in debt - despite staff cutbacks and beds being axed.

And despite primary care trusts and hospitals in Suffolk making vast savings in the last 12 months, it is estimated they will end the financial year around £50m in debt due to overspends in previous years.

The projected figures are contained in a report to Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority. All debts need to be repaid in 2006/07.

A BELEAGURED hospital faces another 'tough year' with further possible cuts to services, it has emerged.

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds has made £6million savings over the past 12 months but needs to find a further £6million savings to tackle the hospital's £11.5million deficit.

The hospital's recovery plan was the centre of discussions yesterday between health bosses and local MPs.

Benefit payment blunders have cost taxpayers more than £2billion under Labour, it was revealed last night.

The astronomical sum has been overpaid to hundreds of thousands of welfare claimants- many of them workshy scroungers- thanks to a catalogue of errors by Whitehall penpushers.

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions admitted to the daily Express: 'It's our mistake- and we can't get the money back.'

Benefit overpayments equivalent to £104 for EVERY household have been made since Labour came to power.

Bungling penpushers have wasted £2.5billion of taxpayers' cash since 1997 - £1.17billion of it on incorrect Income Support payments, figures show.

Tory MP David Ruffley, who uncovered the figures, said: 'Gordon Brown's fiddling with the system and ministers' incompetent running of it is causing chaos.'

The Department for Work and Pensions will not ask for overpayments back, it said last night.

THE unemployed and people on low incomes have received more than pounds 2 billion in overpaid benefits since Labour came to power.

The Government yesterday blamed "official error''. The Tories described the total as "shocking''.

Ministers said there was nothing they could do to recoup the cash other than ask people to repay it voluntarily.

The figures were compiled from answers to parliamentary questions tabled by David Ruffley, the Conservative spokesman for welfare reform.

West Suffolk Hospital is facing a desperate fight to hang on to staff as the financial stranglehold on NHS providers continues to tighten.
The Bury St Edmunds hospital, slashed 260 posts, 50 beds and two theatres last year as it struggled against mounting debts.

Despite this, the hospital made savings of £6 million and improved waiting times for inpatients, day cases, cancer referrals and A&E.

However, the fear is that with West Suffolk facing possible cuts in its funding, more jobs could be sacrificed as bosses battle to reduce a £12 million deficit.

Benefit overpayments had reached almost Pounds 2.5bn during Labour's time in power, and an overcomplicated system had led to "shocking" levels of error, the Conservatives said yesterday.

The Department for Work and Pensions revealed in answers to parliamentary questions from David Ruffley, the Conservative spokesman for welfare reform, that overpayment of income support caused by officials' errors had reached Pounds 1.17bn since 1997 and pension credit overpayment Pounds 540m.

My online survey for Suffolk residents about the Chancellor's Budget asked: "If a Government increased public spending, which area do you think needs it most?"

A third of respondents said: "The NHS."

No surprises there. Our Suffolk health service and its hard working staff are carrying debts that are not of their making.

Many of you living on Moreton Hall use the West Suffolk Hospital and our local GPs.

TORY John Redwood enlisted the help of animalloving MPs to come to the aid of Yorkshire terriers rescued from a filthy shed in West Sussex.

The dogs are among the 206 rescued from the windowless 60ft building after pet breeder Elizabeth Stevens, 73, died in April.

The case prompted outrage after a broadcast showed the animals packed into transport containers and riddled with disease. In "hellish" scenes, six dogs had been partially eaten by others desperate for food.