Lymington Times - Fluoride go-ahead 'undemocratic'

Fluoride go-ahead 'undemocratic' Forest MP tells health secretary
A NEW FOREST MP has challenged the health minister over controversial plans to add fluoride to Southampton's water supply.
The South Central Strategic Health Authority (SHA) gave its approval for the chemical to be added to Southampton's supply in 2009 after the local primary care trust said it was needed to combat child tooth decay.
The plan affects 190,000 people around the city, including 8,000 Totton residents because of the layout of the pipes.
Members of Southampton City Council had originally supported the scheme, but voted against it by a majority of two-to-one In September.
But despite the opposition, the council is powerless to stop the action, even though the government is set to scrap regional health bodies and give power to local councils in 2013.
New Forest East MP Julian Lewis raised the issue in the House of Commons and asked Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, when Southampton City Council and New Forest District Council were expected' to take over responsibility from the SHA.
He also wrote a letter to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Anne Milton MP to voice his concerns.
He wrote: "Southampton City Council has now expressed the view that fluoride should not be added to the water supply. This brings it into line with Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council and Totton and Eling Town Council.
"Surely you can see that it would be inappropriate and undemocratic for a body to impose a measure in its dying days, when it knows perfectly well that the democratically-elected local authorities, to which its powers are about to be transferred, are opposed to fluoridation proceeding.
"The question is, therefore, one of democracy rather than technical legality, and I look to you to recognise a view that expresses that it is not acceptable for the SHA to proceed."
Mrs Milton replied on behalf of Mr Lansley but did not give an indication of time scales. She also wrote to Dr Lewis and said: "The SHA has complied with the current legislation, which was in force in 2008 when it conducted the consultation on the fluoridation scheme.
"The Health and Social Care Bill currently before Parliament provides responsibility for consultations on fluoridation to transfer to local authorities.
"The bill includes powers to make new regulations which will include the criteria which local authorities should apply in determining when consultations on the continuance of existing fluoridation schemes should be conducted. We will be consulting on the content of these regulations before they are laid."
The issue was also recently raised in the House of Lords by Earl Baldwin, a cross-bench hereditary peer, who branded the decision-making process as "pretty terrible".
He asked Government whip Baroness Northover to set up a neutral body to rule on the evidence next time another city considers fluoridation.
Before the SHA unanimously backed the scheme, 72% of the 10,000 respondents to a public consultation said they opposed fluoride.
A two-day legal challenge to the scheme was heard in the High Court earlier this year but a final appeal for a judicial review was rejected by the judge.