MP: Hospital loss is an "appalling waste" (From Thurrock Gazette)
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MP: Hospital loss is an "appalling waste"
8:00am Thursday 13th December 2012 in News
THURROCK’S MP Jackie Doyle-Price said it is “appalling” so much money was wasted on the doomed Hogg Lane hospital project.
The Tory said it was obvious the hospital wasn’t going to go ahead when the PCT overspent in 2009-10.
She said: “It is an appalling waste that Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corp-oration continued to spend money buying land when the money was never there.
“I tried repeatedly to force a moment of honesty from them, but nobody would play.
“Perhaps they were waiting for us to be long enough into the Government to try to blame it on Government cuts. Well that won’t wash.
“This is down to the PCT and TTGDC raising expectations they couldn’t deliver on.”
Labour councillors Val Morris-Cook and Martin Healy, however, did blame the coalition.
Cllr Morris-Cook called on the health minister to come and face residents in Thurrock.
And Cllr Healy added: “Grays and Thurrock is an economic powerhouse, we would have expected the Tory-led coalition Government to match our commitment with a Grays Community Hospital for residents.”
Comments(10)
Bernard 87
says...
3:52pm Thu 13 Dec 12
It was obvious that there was never any money for this, similar to the redevelopment of Purfleet. The TTGDC knew they could promise the earth as they knew that they would not last long enough to be held to account.
As for PCTs not having any money - thats got nothing to do with cuts and more to do with gross borrowing and overspending as was the norm for these bodies under Gordon Brown. So lets get ready to see another housing estate go up on this site.
Thurrock Trojan
says...
9:40pm Thu 13 Dec 12
ebagumtrebor
says...
6:02am Fri 14 Dec 12
Dave_
says...
9:32am Fri 14 Dec 12
The location at the bottom of Hogg Lane was one of the worst places it could have been in Thurrock let alone Grays as the traffic infrastrure is so poor. So in all in all we should be thankful for the flakey nature of the deal, as we would have been rueing it before it had even opened. The real shame is time and money wasted, that could have been put to better use.
Thurrocktrojan, we will be in an economic mess because of the imprudence of the last Labour govt, for years. They threw money at the public sector and allowed things to get out of control, in the banking sector, if more relgulation had been put on the mortgage market and the amounts lent reduced, the housing market would have not got to the ridiculous place it did. Anyone knows, except the last Labour govt that when things are good you put enough aside to see you through the bad times. Maybe in our modern there when you want it society we have lost sight of that. If Gordon Brown hadn't been so keen to sell off the nation's (the nation's mind) gold when it was at rock bottom prices, we may have had some money in the kitty to offset the mess we are now in. But no, he sold it and wasted it and money stolen from pension funds to prop up ill considered policies and projects. When Brown said we will put an end to boom and bust, anyone with a scrap of intelligence knew he was having a laugh.
I'm thankful that we paid off our mortgage early and saved up over the years, as without that we'd be in a worse personal financial hole than we are.
Thurrock Trojan
says...
12:56pm Fri 14 Dec 12
Dame Shirley Williams is right in saying our economy suffered towards the end of Labour's reign because other things fed into it: Bankers and the global economic climate itself.
Labour wanted to regulate the banks but the Tories were against it; now the Tories are screaming blue murder.
The mess our economy is in now is because of the incompetent George Osborne. We're on the verge of entering a triple-dip recession and also risk losing our AAA rating in early 2013.
This government needs to take responsibility for the mess it has made of our economy which was actually still growing when they came in office in 2010.
Thurrock Trojan
says...
1:01pm Fri 14 Dec 12
This government is making life unbearable for millions of people at the lower end of the scale while millionaires are blossoming.
By the way, our useless MP Jackie Doyle Price voted for petrol prices to go up by 3p in January 2013, and she also has the audacity to ask her constituents to feel sorry for the bankers! This just shows how out of touch with Thurrock she really is.
Bernard 87
says...
4:29pm Fri 14 Dec 12
As for your version of the financial meltdown....I suggest you do some more research on the matter. You may suprise yourself.
I suggest you read up on Labours economic history as well,have a look at Labour between 68-70 as well as 78-79. They were a rip roaring success.
Thurrock Trojan
says...
4:56pm Fri 14 Dec 12
Bernard 87 wrote:So, you're also a Tory xenophobe?
You can't get an appointment at the doctors anymore to get your head tested thanks to the 4 million new Brits Labour imported :)
As for your version of the financial meltdown....I suggest you do some more research on the matter. You may suprise yourself.
I suggest you read up on Labours economic history as well,have a look at Labour between 68-70 as well as 78-79. They were a rip roaring success.
The vast majority of people who have arrived here from abroad actually work hard and pay their taxes. There's a myth that foreigners come to the UK just to claim benefits.
Whenever I visit my local GP surgery it is full of white English people, some of which have not worked for years because they're too lazy to get out of bed.
It's not foreigners who are clogging up GP surgeries in Thurrock, it's mostly work-shy Brits.
I don't need to do any research on the global economic crisis thank you very much or Labour's history.
If you are applauding this rotten government for hacking public services to shreds and penalising people at the lower end of the scale then you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
I hope you never have to rely on food parcels like many other people are because of this government.
ebagumtrebor
says...
7:51am Sat 15 Dec 12
coddy says...
12:24pm Thu 13 Dec 12
Whose he kidding