As usual with the Liberal Democrats who run Watford, they want to claim the credit for the work of others whist not accepting responsibility for their own failures.

As so it is with Cllr Iain Sharpe, husband of our Mayor, who is claiming credit for the new Health Campus road even though it was approved under the last Labour Government.

A road incidentally that he said, when standing for election, that he would strongly oppose.

It is an established fact that in 2008 the Labour Government had given the go-ahead for a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) rebuild of Watford Hospital. Yet less than 3 years later the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander ordered a review of PFI schemes and suspended them, including Watford Hospital.

A year later, Danny Alexander launched a new Private Finance scheme for hospital building, dubbed ‘PF2’. The problem was that Watford no longer appeared in the list of approved schemes.

If there is an email or the minutes of a meeting between our Lib Dem Mayor or Cllr Sharpe (then Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Watford) with Danny Alexander lobbying for government funding for our hospital, then they should produce it. But if there is not, then the local Liberal Democrats and our Mayor are guilty of failing to stand up for our town and its hospital.

Now I am no fan of PFI but if it’s a choice between a PFI funded new hospital or no new hospital at all then I think most reasonable people would say, ‘let us have the new hospital’.

A hospital that could have been built by 2015 if it hadn’t been for the failure of the Liberal Democrats and their bedfellows in government. The 9 lost years are their failure.

Insofar as my own record is concerned, I came off the Council in 1996 and I am very proud of much of what Labour achieved.

For those who are interested, ‘Labour’s Legacy’ is on our web site www.watfordlabour.org.uk It is not Labour’s record that is the issue here it is that of the Liberal Democrats who have run our town since 2002 and who on the big issues let us down time and time again.

Mike Jackson, Chair, Watford Labour Party