Anyone got a plan?

Do you ever think to yourself 'I wonder if there's a responsible person in charge and if they've got a plan?'

I found myself musing about this at 3am on the Tuesday morning before going back to work, the first day after the Christmas and New Year break.

We'd just been informed about the new garden villages and towns, and the one to be built near here at Deenethorpe, on the disused airfield.

Bearing in mind that just before Christmas we'd been told that all our local A&Es were in crisis, and that Corby's Urgent Care centre is dealing with double the amount of patients for which it was designed, I just wanted to ask, is somebody planning on opening a new hospital for the north of the county?

Or perhaps opening another Urgent Care Centre as the one at Corby is so popular?  Or expanding Kettering General Hospital to cope with the rapidly increasing population?

Is the person with the plan - not sure who that is, I'm just hoping it's not a man behind a curtain in the style of the Wizard of Oz - planning on building some new schools too while they're at it?

Both primary and secondary schools, preferably with before and after-school clubs, and nurseries and pre-schools as well.

And will these things actually get built before new people flock to this area, or will the houses come first, then the inhabitants, and if so, where will these people go to the doctor, dentist, hospital, school etc in the meantime?

Will the person or people with the plan - be that MPs, borough councillors, county councillors etc - please reassure the existing population that these measures are all in place before the new building starts, and that Section 106 monies and obligations will be met by the developers.

I appreciate there's an argument that houses need to be built, and there's a need for affordable homes.  But let's just hope that somebody is planning and ensuring that all the vital ancillary services are in place as well.