St Ann’s Valley Centre – users say ‘standards are in decline’

St Ann’s Councillors Sue Johnson & Dave Liversidge said today they “were concerned at the number of complaints about the facilities being provided in the new St Ann’s Valley Centre. In particular the GP practices were a cause for concern.” The councillors now hope to arrange a meeting with the Centre Manager to discuss these issues in a bid to raise standards.

In 2011 Friends of the St Ann’s Valley Centre held meeting every quarter to oversee the new plans, and watch over the new facilities to be provided in the building, however, since the opening ceremony eight months ago no further meetings have taken place.

As the building’s first anniversary approaches, the St Ann’s Valley Centre facilities are said to be ‘not up to standard’

On the ground floor at the front reception desk there was originally Library staff, a Nottingham City homes (NCH) help desk, and NHS counter. Today Nottingham City Homes provides no facilities for local tenants & residents to air their problems. librarians manning the help desk are unable to answer the numerous enquiries. Instead librarians simply point to a free public phone opposite and ask tenants to make use of it. Using the phone locals can contact Nottingham City Council departments.

The St Ann’s Housing Office closed down last April and today tenants of Nottingham City Homes have nowhere to go to raise concerns about their tenancies, or speak to their area patch managers.

In addition, on the upper floor there are a number of separate GP practices, and patients have bitterly complained that it is impossible to get suitable regular appointments to see their GP. The situation has now deteriorated to the point where GP’s have had to leave their consulting rooms to instruct their practice secretary to book their patients’ next appointment promptly.

When the St Ann’s Valley Centre opened managers pioneered the use of volunteers to assist visitors with finding their way around, and getting the information they were in need off. Today there appears to be no volunteers in place.

Another problem is that local community organisations are banned from displaying any poster or provide flyers to advertise local community events & activities.

Local community groups are also being denied the use of the community room to hold events & exhibitions.

The centre offers the following services:

• Three local GP practices;
• Clinical services e.g. speech and language therapy and physiotherapy;
• Community services e.g. District Nurses and Health Visitors;
• Library;
• Targeted Youth services;
• Children's Centre outreach;

The funding for the £15 million project was secured through a £11 million investment from NHS Nottingham City plus £4 million from the Government's Co-location Fund (secured by Nottingham City Council).