The comment column ‘Housing not health?’ (Watford Observer, January 20, 2017) is a timely reminder that yet another year has passed and there is absolutely no sign that Watford will get the promised new hospital and that the so-called ‘Health Campus’ has become little more that a private housing development.

SEE ALSO: Hospital needed more than new homes

A new hospital had been approved back in 2008 under a Labour government and would have been built and open now had it not been for the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government cancelling the plans in 2011.

No wonder the local leading politicians from the coalition parties, Richard Harrington MP and Mayor Thornhill, are silent on the issue.

They should hang their heads in shame.

If they were doing their job they would be banging on the door of the Secretary of State for Health demanding a timetable for hospital development.

What is the point of a Mayor for Watford if she doesn’t stand up for the town on such an important issue? Car parking is important to many but it rather misses the point that it’s a new hospital that we need.

Labour is no longer in power but we continue to stand up for the NHS. Last Saturday our members were out in force in Watford High Street collecting signatures on a petition for more funding for the NHS. The response was overwhelming.

Watford will not get its new hospital until those in power do something to make it happen and there is precious little sign of that at the moment.

Mike Jackson, Chair, Watford Labour Party