Bedford Borough councillors have been urged to avoid scaremongering and focus on solutions in discussions surrounding East West Rail’s (EWR) plans for a multi-storey car park at Bedford Hospital.
During Wednesday’s Full Council meeting (5 February), Councillor Doug McMurdo (Independent, Sharnbrook) criticised claims made by cllr Gribble in January that EWR would charge the NHS £35 million for a new hospital car park.
Read: Bedford Hospital responds to Borough councillor’s EWR car park claim
He stated that no such agreement exists and that EWR had confirmed the hospital will not be expected to provide capital funding for the project.
“East West Rail is very clear in that they’ve not come to any discussion, any agreement, about this multi-story car park,” he said, “And I quote ‘I can confirm there are no expectations for the hospital to provide any capital funding for this’.”
Cllr Nicola Gribble (Independent, Renhold and Ravensden), the council’s portfolio holder for the environment, said: “If I can clear up a point, please, Bedford Hospital isn’t being asked to provide capital to build a multi-storey car park.
“There is no expectation for the hospital to find the money from the bank, from their coffers. East West Rail said they will borrow the money and expect Bedford Hospital to pay it back,” she said.
Claims not supported
Councillor McMurdo challenged this interpretation, stating that his conversations with senior figures at the Hospital Trust and East West Rail did not support Gribble’s claim.
“I’ve been to the most senior individual within the Hospital Trust, I know the author of the East West Rail email,” he said, “The capital funding will not be expected as I interpret this, in either the capital sum or the funding thereof.
“As councillors, we need to be very careful what we say, and the executive in particular needs to be ultra cautious of what they say.
“Because our residents think they can actually believe what [the executive is] saying,” he said.
Following last night’s meeting, a spokesperson for East West Railway Company told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are working together with the hospital to determine how plans for the new rail line, which will better connect the area around Bedford, will manage any potential impact on the provision of car parking.
“There is no expectation for the hospital or the wider NHS to cover any upfront costs for this and discussions are ongoing about any commercial arrangements in the future.”
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
