Opinion: ​NHS in crisis - but local Tories have one of their own

This week Labour has been focussing on the crisis in the NHS. We all know the NHS is at breaking point. There are now over 75,000 people waiting to start treatment at local hospitals, and then there is the mess over NHS dentists or trying to get a GP appointment when you need one.

Labour created the NHS. Our values are built into the NHS’s founding principle that everyone, wherever they live, whatever they earn, should get healthcare that is free at the point of use. Right now, the NHS is not working. 13 years of Conservative Government has run the service into the ground.

Fixing the NHS crisis, respecting nurses and NHS staff and modernising the service so that it is fit for a growing city like ours should be the priority. But instead, the local Conservatives are involved in their own crisis. But what is it all about?

The last few days have proved themselves enlightening as far as the Conservative administration is concerned. Councillor Gavin Elsey has accused the Peterborough MP and the party for trying to hound him and a colleague, Peter Hiller, out of the party for not supporting his pathetic attempts at gerrymandering the constituency boundary to make it a safe seat for him at the next election. Yes, ‘Pop up Paul’ is worried.

The local Conservative Party argued that the city centre and West ward should be put into North West Cambridgeshire, whilst safe Tory voting wards were brought into Peterborough. The Boundary Commission rightly rejected these plans, but some Conservative politicians have a long memory.

The latest crisis to hit the Conservatives seems to around the shenanigans of the planning application at Horsey Toll. The decision was voted on 6 to 2 with one abstention but was called in to the rarely used Planning Appeals committee, where the Conservatives have most members rather than being referred to the planning inspectorate.

Set aside your potential misgivings for the administration to mark its own homework, was the call in because the owner of Barnack Estates, who submitted the application, is a major Tory donor?

I sit on the planning committee and there was an excellent debate. Little did I know that three Conservative members of the committee didn’t declare any interests over the application. Whatever the reason, this whole sorry saga doesn’t pass the smell test of good governance now, does it?

Please forgive me if I am looking at chain of events that really don’t appear to be in the public interest. I am sure our Conservative administration will have something to say in reply. I certainly hope so! But when not one but five members vote with their feet and do the honourable thing, as Cllr Chris harper did a year ago, questions need to be asked.

Please rest assured that the Labour Group will work with opposition parties on behalf of you, the people of Peterborough, and the city we all call home. Our job, as a competent opposition, is to hold this Conservative administration to account.

Over the course of the next year, I am confident that many more will agree with what I have been saying for months. That it really is time for change.