I can’t help thinking that Liberal Democrat Cllr Iain Sharpe is being a tad oversensitive in his reaction (Trying to rewrite history, Letters, January 25) to the letter from Labour Parliamentary candidate Chris Ostrowski on January 11 which highlighted the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government’s scrapping of the Labour government plans for a new Watford Hospital in 2011.
READ MORE: Letter: Trying to rewrite history
Clearly Iain Sharpe, along with the rest of the Liberal Democrats, knows the austerity that his government helped introduce is not forgotten by Watford voters, as witnessed by the massive swing to Labour in the June 2017 general election and the humiliating third place of the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate. This confirmed Labour as the only alternative to Conservative MP Richard Harrington at the next election.
As for Iain Sharpe’s criticism of Watford Labour councillors over support for Watford Hospital, this is desperate on his part considering I and Labour councillors voted for the new road, Tom Sawyer Way, after the Government provided the funding.
Labour councillors have also voted for other planning applications associated with the hospital.
The Watford Labour Party and Watford Labour councillors will take no lessons from Cllr Sharpe and his Liberal Democrats on the history of fighting to keep our hospital in West Watford.It was Claire Ward, our former Labour MP, and the campaign to save our hospital in the late 1990s who were instrumental in the decision to concentrate acute services at Watford and modernise the hospital.
Despite Cllr Sharpe’s denials it is well documented that in 2008 a plan and timetable existed for the rebuilding of the hospital which had the then Labour government’s backing, subject to the approval of business cases.
Would it not be better for Watford if Cllr Sharpe used his influence to encourage those Liberal Democrats in Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding area to accept finally that Watford is the main acute hospital for West Herts and get behind the campaign to secure government funding for its long overdue modernisation?
County Councillor for West Watford
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