Through a sly choice of words Labour councillor Sara Jane Trebar tries to give the impression that the car park currently being built next to Watford General is somehow nothing to do with the hospital.

In fact it is a new hospital car park, which will provide much-needed improved parking arrangements for staff, patients and visitors. Given the unsatisfactory current situation, which forces people to brave the elements and walk up a steep hill to get to their appointments, adding to the stress of a hospital visit, it is curious that Cllr Trebar dismisses such an improvement so lightly.

Building the new car park at the former Farm Terrace site has also been crucial in enabling the plans for future investment in Watford General to come forward. It means the existing car parking area can be used for new clinical facilities, while meeting the essential requirement that hospital services can continue on-site during construction.

The awkward fact for Labour councillors is that they opted to exploit short-term controversy over the Farm Terrace issue by opposing the use of the land for the hospital, rather than recognise the wider picture of making sure space was available to modernise and expand Watford General.

Had Labour’s policy been followed, the current plans would be a non-starter. The hospital would face a bleaker future, trying to find a way to redevelop within its existing, heavily constricted site. Given the ongoing pressure to direct new hospital investment to a site other than Watford (see recent correspondence in the Watford Observer letters pages), this was a singularly reckless stance to take.

Anyone who remembers the disastrous state Labour left Watford Council in when they were last in charge, described by official inspectors as ‘one of the worst’ in the country, should not be surprised by their councillors denying reality and obfuscating about important issues.

But the fact a new hospital car park is being built, making land available for new hospital facilities, vindicates the Liberal Democrats’ decisions that enabled this to happen.

Iain Sharpe

Oxhey Road, Watford