I am not sure if Derek Scudder has unwisely stopped reading his local newspaper.

Maybe this can explain why he wrote to you defying all the evidence published in the Watford Observer letters page towards the end of last year.

Published reports, minutes of meetings and indeed a letter from former MP Claire Ward herself demonstrated that: 

SEE ALSO: Letter to the editor: Hospital claims are fake

• In 2008 approval had been given to rebuild Watford Hospital by the Labour Government;

• The NHS Trust had projected building completion by 2015;

• The scheme was suspended by the incoming Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in 2011;

• By 2012 Watford Hospital was no longer on the Government’s list of rebuilding projects.

What is tragic about this evidence is that at no point did the local Liberal Democrats nor our Mayor raise any objection to their own party’s complicity in the scrapping of Watford Hospital modernisation in 2011- 2012.

This highlights the question raised in two recent Watford Observer editorials, as to whether our Mayor has her finger on the pulse or is in any way effective when it comes to the big issues that affect our town?

Whether it is the scrapping of the hospital rebuilding or the mysterious disappearance of funding for the Croxley Rail link, our Mayor has been shown to be woefully inept.

She appears very good at all the ‘fluffy’ stuff such as opening roads and having her picture taken, but Watford spends nearly quarter a million pounds a year on the mayoralty and the question has to be asked again and again, are we getting value for money from our Mayor when every other District Council in Hertfordshire manages the same or better without one? I think the answer is clear that we are all being taken for a ride.

Last week’s announcement that the NHS Trust is to apply again for government approval to rebuild the hospital is good news indeed and we should all get behind it, but nine years have been lost and it could be another decade before building is complete.

In the meantime committed NHS staff will continue to work in many cases in sub standard buildings and patients wait even longer in A&E. Watford deserved better than this.

Mike Jackson Chair, Watford Labour Party