THE QUESTION IS WILL ANYONE LISTEN?

Well, the residents of Enfield spoke on Saturday about their services & their hospital! Not at a meeting, not in a letter, not on the phone & not quietly; they spoke by marching!

They rattled & talked, chanted & sang, called & shouted, they drummed & they whistled their way out of the Town, up Chase Side, down the Ridgeway & along Lavender Hill to the site of their angst; Chase Farm Hospital & its notoriously absent Chief Executive; Avril Dongworth.

The protest started quietly & by 1.30 the crowd gathered at the War Memorial seemed inadequately small. By 2pm when the march was due to start the crowd had swelled immeasurably & was spilling out along the Town, filling War Memorial Green & completely swamping the pavements, green & roadways with a party atmosphere at odds with the seriousness of the issue at hand & the underlying anger of the throng. The previous day's rain gave way to sunshine & the day was met by residents of all ages.

Council Leader Michael Rye gave a rousing speech before the march set off, & speaking about the mounting campaign & particularly Saturday's event gave credit to the Save Chase Farm Councillors, & in particular Councillor Kate Wilkinson. ELAG would add their thanks and congratulations to Kate Wilkinson & the whole Save Chase Farm team!

The great & the good, the young & the old, the noted & the notorious, the nearly famous & the infamous marched, walked, posed & stewarded for a single cause; Enfield's first and main hospital, its A & E (so under threat), in-house services, women & children's services, maternity care; community services that we all rely on to be there, whether we use them or not!

A single police van led the way, followed by the main banner held by Joan Ryan MP, David Burrows MP, Joanne McCartney GLA member for Enfield & Haringey, Charles Walker MP, Theresa Villiers MP, Andy Love MP & Nick De Bois (tucked on a corner).

But it was the ensuing march which held attention. Stewarded by campaigners from across the Borough, for our vice chair Beth Pedder it was like an old home week with familiar faces from across Enfield dotted throughout most with the yellow jackets of steward - Jill Simpson (Spurs campaigner) & Tony Claydon (Hillyfields) to name a couple. She said "I looked back from the front of the march where I was stewarding, and thought to myself, where else would anyone be this afternoon but here, & doing this? It was fantastic!"

There were a lot of faces; 10,000+ Enfield faces supported by others from further afield, many who were losing their hospital, came to march for ours!

The splendid police kept the march safe, led us along & stopped the traffic for some half an hour while the march passed. Most cars caught up in the peaceful if painfully slow progress were supportive, honking their horns to requests of "Honk your horn for your hospital" from Beth Pedder, & turning off their engines to comply with pleas from Enfield Campaigner Jill Simpson, who pointed out "It was a health march after all".

There were a lot of familiar council faces, Kate Wilkinson (who was everywhere all at once & her very nice Husband with the children) & Keiran McGregor of course, Councillors Chris Bond (where else would he be), Kriss Brown, Annette Dreblow, John Boast, Former Council Leader Doug Taylor, Tony Dey (our Mayor although not in Mayoral capacity which was a shame), the Lock's own Norman Ford & Matthew Laban to name but a few, waving & calling as they passed. As the front of the march gained the hospital the end was just snaking out of the town like a multi-coloured streamer.

There were the elderly, there were people in wheelchairs that amazed by surging forward up hill in support of their hospital & then there where the young. Vocal, loud, chanting & totally in accord with the moment, they shone. They were the loudest; 'PROTECT OUR SERVICES' they shouted 'WE NEED OUR HOSPITAL' & 'SAVE CHASE FARM'

Good for them!  Well said that person!

Click HERE to go to the Save Chase farm web site