Move to Merge Coroner's Office

[marky]

Here we go again. This time it's the Coroner's Office they want to merge with that of Teesside - so we can have a service as poor as the one in Boro by the sound of it.
"The report from Middlesbrough Council's community safety and leisure scrutiny  panel comes after a review of the service following pressure on coroner Michael  Sheffield about the long backlog of inquest cases.
Several recommendations have been made by the report - a draft version of  which was published last month - which include:
The Ministry of Justice gives serious consideration to the merging of  Teesside and Hartlepool coroner services to improve efficiency;

Read More http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2012/11/30/plans-to-shake-up-teesside-coroner-s-service-are-revealed-84229-32337719/

[Inspector Knacker]

It's just part of an ongoing process to subsume us into a greater Teesside, the town is being slowly but remorslessly stripped of all the features that make it a seperate town and just another place on the edge....... which probably explsins the interchange, a place we all travel to to get a train oiut of town to access all important aervices.
The future's bleak, the future's Tesside.

[SRMoore]

The Conservatives are at it too
http://www.hartlepoolconservatives.org.uk/news/we-are-teesside-cf-branches-merger-talks

Sometimes it is better to pool resources. Othertimes it isn't.

[steveL]

Reading the article, it sounds like the coroner's office in Boro is in a bit of a state.

[SRMoore]

Makes sense I guess Shane. That way you can hire a fleet of coaches   coach   minibus     taxi bicycle to bring you and all the Teesside tories to your meetings at one central venue.... 

We better look at sponsorship for those 120+ bikes we'll need

[marky]

wow - 120+.   It's a Tory comeback 

[notenoughsaid]

   Having read the Mail tonight re the proposals to merge further services from Hartlepool to supplement Teesside, Middlesbrough,call it what you want makes my blood boil.   I would ask what the devil it has to do with them and who do they think they are to strip us of our identity.   The answer is quite in "Anglo Saxon "   sweet F all.   The problem with the M'Boro coroner Mr.Sheffield was prevalent some ten or eleven years ago when he was failing to finalise Inquests in a proportionate time and thereby deny families closure.This is an old problem which they have not got to grips with. Perhaps Mr. Sheffield is the problem.   The Coroners Court etc. works very well in Hartlepool and should not be diluted to the other side of the river.   Would all inquests have to be conducted at Middlesbrough?   Smacks of having to travel to NTGH for A&E services.  Do they think we have no feelings in Hartlepool.   Inquests must be a traumatic time for bereaved relatives and having to take a No.36 Bus to attend a hearing rubs salt into the wound.    All of this follows on the back of suggestions some years ago to close H'Pool Mags.Ct and transfer cases to M'Boro. I hate to think how many defendants would fail to turn up if it inconvenienced them to have to travel.   Not many shoplifting  days left until Christmas!!!  ( That is if you can find a decent shop in MGSC)
   Sorry for the rant which is perhaps premature but I do wish the powers that be would leave well alone and sort their own problems out.

[Inspector Knacker]

Just another nail in the coffin of our autonomy as a town, the future of the so called  Tees Valley is in the corridor beyween Middlesbrough and Stockton as designated by  the anonymous suits who control our lives and we are well out on a limb.
The hospital is a good example how  everyone is worn down by the machine as it moves remorselessly on in a ratchet like manner, the only thing that matters is the machine.
[/quote]

[rabbit]

The problem with the M'Boro coroner Mr.Sheffield was prevalent some ten or eleven years ago when he was failing to finalise Inquests in a proportionate time and thereby deny families closure.This is an old problem which they have not got to grips with. Perhaps Mr. Sheffield is the problem.

He`s only 82!! Lots of years to go in the "job".

quote, from the Coroners Society of England and Wales:

"There is no mandatory retirement age for coroners. However those who elect to join the local government pension scheme are entitled to continue in the penionable appointment until 70 years of age and thereafter, from year to year, by mutual agreement with the relevant council. This has the practical effect of most coroners choosing to retire around the time that their pension contributions cease."

So there`s the answer-the relevant council needs to sort things out (not ours).

[The Great Dictator]

The Middlesbrough coroner has been slammed for taking up to 18 months to complete an enquiry, they should quit at 70.