'Not fit for purpose': Telford & Wrekin Council should be abolished, says MP in A&E row

Mr Paterson called for a single unitary council "working for the good of the whole of Shropshire".

In a scathing attack on Telford & Wrekin, the MP criticised its handling of the NHS Future Fit process.

He said the council's decision to threaten a legal challenge to the review of hospital services in the county had caused further damaging delays.

Telford & Wrekin threatened a judicial review after it became clear the favoured option was to close the A&E unit at the town's Princess Royal Hospital and move its £28 million Women and Children's Unit to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Today Mr Paterson said: "The deliberate misrepresentation of the Future Fit proposals shows that Telford & Wrekin Council is not fit for purpose.

"It was a great mistake to break up Shropshire in 1998, it has been a continuous entity since Saxon times.

"I am quite clear that it would be much better to close down Telford & Wrekin Council, put the significant savings into public services and establish a unitary council working for the good of the whole of Shropshire."

Telford & Wrekin Council's legal threat has delayed a Future Fit decision by at least a month, a move Mr Paterson said could put lives at risk and was a "complete waste of money".

He said: "Since 2014 the NHS Future Fit programme, led by local clinical professionals, has been reviewing hospital services. We must respect their judgement.

"The most likely proposal to emerge is that the two current A&Es in Shrewsbury and Telford will continue providing 80 per cent of their current services but will be renamed urgent care centres. More will be opened, which is great news.

"On top of this a brand new emergency care centre costing £300 million will be built ensuring that the most traumatic cases are treated locally and top class clinical specialists are attracted back into the county. Incredibly this investment is being presented by some campaigners as a savage cut."

Shaun Davies, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: "Telford & Wrekin Council on an all-party basis – Labour, Conservative, Lib Dems and Independent's – supported a motion that would allow the council to use judicial review if required. We have very serious concerns about the process and if it is illegal we will challenge this throughout the four-week pause with the CCG and if necessary through the courts.

"The same motion is a call on more funding for the health services in Shropshire, something that is urgently required given the debt the Hospital Trust is in and Shropshire CCG is in.

"I am deeply concerned that Owen Paterson and Conservative MPs not only want to close down the £28m Women and Children's Unit, remove our 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week A&E but because he does not like what councillors are doing in Telford & Wrekin he also wants to take away the council from residents of Telford & Wrekin. Such a move would see Telford & Wrekin paying more in council tax and car park charges across the borough.

"Such claims are really not helpful."