Back in the 70s, not long after I came to Telford and the town was starting to grow we relied on Cosford Hospital to service us. Then they closed Cosford Hospital so we mounted a campaign to try and save it.

When we lost that campaign, we then campaigned to get a hospital for Telford, a district general hospital for Telford.

I was part of that campaign and between us and a Ministerial visit to Westminster, we made the case for a hospital in Telford based on the growing population and the industry that we have here.

We made that case, we won the argument and we got our district general hospital.

Now, 40 or so years later, they are trying to downgrade our hospital.

They want to take away the Women and Children’s Centre whereas here in Telford and Wrekin we have high social deprivation, high birth rate with more women giving birth in Telford than the rest of Shropshire put together and high infant mortality.

So, the powers that be decided we needed a Women and Children’s Centre. They built one. It cost £28million. Now, they want to take it away and move it to Shrewsbury. Why on earth would they want to do that?

They want to take away our Accident and Emergency department. We’ve got the fastest growing population in the West Midlands. We’ve got a very large industrial base including MOD Logistics. We need an Accident and Emergency department on our doorstep to look after our people and our workers.

We need the Women and Children’s Centre in Telford to look after our young mums and our kids.

Therefore, I will do everything I can to make that case and argue to retain Telford’s full hospital services.

Complete the "Future Fit" survey today - https://nhsfuturefit.org/