Strike affecting north Hampshire

Schools and day care centres among services hit by today's strike action

SCHOOLS and day care services in north Hampshire are services hit hardest by today's (Wednesday) strike action over public sector pensions.

Four north Hampshire schools are closed, including: Bishopswood Junior School, Tadley, the Hurst Community College, Baughurst, Silchester Primary School and Tadley Community Primary School

A further three schools are partially closed, including the Clere School, Burghclere; Kingsclere Primary School and Ecchinswell Primary School.

Hampshire County Council also closed all day care centres across the county, due to anticipated disruption.

Services at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire hospital remained unaffected, according to acting chief executive and director of nursing, Donna Green, who issued the following statement today (Wed):

“No operations have been cancelled and no wards are closed. Staff have worked as part of a team to ensure business as usual.”

In north Hampshire, library services remained largely unaffected, with Tadley library open as usual until 7pm today and Kingsclere library unaffected, as it is normally closed on Wednesday.

According to Hampshire County Council, residential and nursing homes were “coping” with cover provided by staff from day centres.

Adult day care services across the county reported 211 staff on strike, with “no significant impact” on services.

Countryside sites remained open, as did catering services - including for the provision of school dinners, with registrations, coroners and trading standards reporting normal services.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's civic offices in Basingstoke remains open as usual, according to the council, despite some staff supporting the strike action.

Essential services provided by the council have been unaffected, including refuse collections, with the council advising bins should be put out as normal.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services spokeswoman, Jo Gray, confirmed the strike would only affect non-operational staff, with frontline services remaining unaffected.

Head of human resources for Hampshire Constabulary, Nicole Cornelius said, in the event of a major emergency, striking employees would return to work to support the police response, with contingency plans in place to ensure emergency calls could be taken in the force's control room.

UPDATE 3.20PM

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Ken Thornber, (Con Brockenhurst) said there had not been any “significant impact” on council services as a result of the industrial action, with 415 council staff on strike, equivalent to 2.5 per cent of staff.

This total rises to 3,415 including those staff striking in schools - where 13 per cent of staff went on strike

"Our priority has been to ensure essential services for the most vulnerable residents continue to run and we put in place contingency plans to protect these critical services,” said Mr Thornber.

"The main impact has been within schools with 318 schools out of 502 choosing to close or partially close. Earlier in the week, as part of contingency planning, the county council decided day centres would be closed enabling staff from these services attending work to be redeployed to their nearest care home or do out reach work. Five out of our 53 libraries have closed with a few others closing early.”

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has confirmed 109 members of staff joined the strike, or 19 per cent of staff.