Page 80 - BHTA 100 years

Loan Stores threat, Import Duty battle, 90th anniversary celebrations...
There were some important and potentially game-changing issues to be dealt
with in 2007.
The emergence of a plan by the Department of Health that Loan Stores would be closed and replaced by a prescription based service dominated much of the year for members doing business in that sector. Details of the scheme were presented to BHTA members at a conference in April 2007, when former BHTA Chairman, Julian Cobbledick told delegates: “This is very exciting for the industry and has huge and potentially very good implications for our members.”
The scheme was due to be rolled out in just a year. It didn’t quite work out like that though with many heated debates along the way!
One of the rst major developments was when the Transforming Community Equipment Services (TCES) pilots in Cheshire and Oldham went live in October of this year. DG Ray Hodgkinson said at the time: “What this policy move signals to us all – no matter what sector we work in – is that a sea change is about to take place on how the public are delivered AT products and services.”
Another major concern for members in 2007 was a proposed change of duty on imported mobility vehicles. BHTA’s parliamentary representative, MP Mark Oaten wrote about ‘a scandal that has left me shocked and confused’. Mark said: “A series of patchy and vague pieces of legislation, passed through various international organisations from 2001 have resulted in a change of Duty on certain motorised vehicles. The impact of this change will hit both the industry and the consumer hard if action is not taken immediately.”
BHTA 100 years