In replying to Cllr Peter Taylor’s letter of last week regarding Watford Hospital (What new hospital plan, Letters to the Editor, November 4), I think it worth making a few key points.

READ MORE: Letter: What new hospital plan?

In 2010, Watford was on the verge of getting a new hospital on the present site.

Threats to the hospital had been warded off by the then Labour MP (who incidentally secured a new AAU Unit, something none of us want to visit, but we are grateful it is there when we need it).

But in 2010 something happened which had a profound effect on Labour’s future plans. A general election which saw the Conservatives as the largest party but fall short of an overall majority.

I note that Cllr Taylor, leader of Watford Borough Council's Liberal Democrats, preferred not to touch upon what happened next in his rather misleading letter last week.

As we all now know the Lib Dems went merrily off and leapt into bed with the Tories and Labour’s plans for the hospital were ripped up. This despite the then Lib Dem Candidate, Sal Brinton agreeing with Labour and warning the Conservatives would put the plans for the hospital “which we need” in jeopardy and which already had “£30 million spent towards it”.

So there we have it, the bizarre spectacle of the Lib Dems managing to face both ways on the same issue, one accepting the truth of Labour’s plans and the other, Pinocchio-like, denying it.

Labour funded the NHS and we will always do the best for the NHS, and Labour’s record on delivering for Watford does not include obstructing the new access road as one of Cllr Taylor’s colleagues threatened to do.

Cllr Nigel Bell, leader of the opposition Labour group,Watford Borough Council