Luton Primary Care Trust has made its decision – in spite of petitions signed by two thousand local residents – that the Chapel Street Walk-in Centre will not have its opening hours restored to 101 a week.

And at the decision-making meeting the PCT was able to say that Labour controlled Luton Borough Council supported cuts in services for vulnerable elderly people in order to finance an increase in hours.

Luton Council’s Executive is responsible for deciding the official Council response when consultation exercises are carried out by other bodies. The Executive decided on 29th October to recommend to the PCT that services for vulnerable elderly people should be cut in order to finance a restoration of the Walk-in Centre hours.

Labour Councillors claim they did not know they had voted for cuts in NHS services for elderly Luton residents.

“Their inept action has let the PCT Board off the hook,” says Liberal Democrat councillor Jenny Davies.

“If only the Labour members had the courage to go for what we all know the town needs this might never have happened – and if the Labour government had not swiped £9M out of Luton’s NHS funding over the last two years cuts would not have even been suggested.”

A massive 69% of people voted to keep the full 101 opening hours and this shows how strongly Luton residents feel about their NHS Walk-In Centre.

“For the PCT to ignore this, and for the Council to help them get away with it, is an insult to the town. Luton can have no confidence in the actions of the Board – they should resign. Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for full funding for Luton’s health services so that our town can have the health service it needs and deserves.” says councillor Davies