Littlehampton residents ‘misled and let down’ by NHS bosses

In a letter to NHS West Sussex, the area’s primary care trust (PCT), leader of Arun District Council Gill Brown has demanded that Littlehampton’s hospital be built, and said residents felt badly let down and misled by the extended delays.

Town centre traders and the Arun Businesses Partnership are the latest organisations to pledge support for the campaign, which has seen more than 3,000 letters of protest be signed in just 14 days.

Mrs Brown wrote she was: “Appalled at the lack of any substantive progress on the project and the unnecessary bureaucracy surrounding delivery of a new community hospital in Littlehampton.

“We have not been surprised by the recent strength of public support for regaining our local community hospital.

“We expect the PCT to listen to the local elected councillors, GPs and the public’s strongly held views and build it now. The people of Littlehampton deserve better.”

Arun Business Partnership, a network of more than 3,500 local businesses across the district, pledged its backing at a meeting on Monday night.

Steve Cusack, from the partnership, said: “We feel very strongly that the people of Littlehampton, our staff and our customers, should get what they have been promised.

“The delays that this project has suffered are outrageous given the need for the facility is so clear.”

Traders have also put their weight behind the fight.

Simon Vickers, chairman of the Littlehampton Traders’ Partnership, and owner of Arun Furnishers, in Beach Road, said: “After years of disappointments regarding the hospital, the traders fully support the new push to bring this matter back into the public eye and, hopefully, make some progress towards a start to the works.

“The new hospital will be of great benefit to Littlehampton.

“Our community needs it and it will create employment and future investment in the town.”

To join the campaign, go to www.arun.gov.uk/giveusourhospital to sign an online letter or head to www.facebook.com/giveusourhospital.