The newly elected county councillor for Seaton and Colyton, Martin Shaw, has instructed solicitors to write a letter to support a judicial review of the decision to close Seaton Hospital beds.
Cllr Shaw started the campaign off by backing it with £1,000 of his own cash and will use the rest of his councillor’s allowance of £10,000 to underwrite this campaign while donations come in.
It comes after the NEW Devon CCG announced that community hospital beds in Exeter, Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton would be closed in March. Members of the board voted in favour of retaining option B – 32 beds in Tiverton, 24 beds in Sidmouth and 16 beds in Exmouth.
Already in the 48 hours since he launched the campaign, he has managed to raise thousands of pounds – enough to go the solicitors and start the campaign.
The appeal comes just days after Seaton Town Council ruled out its support for such a bid on the grounds that they could not finance the review.
Cllr Shaw, who was elected last Thursday, said: “There is, I believe, an uncontrovertible case that the CCG made their decision in a flawed manner.
“Solicitors are preparing a letter before action to send to the NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group by the end of this week, giving the case why their decision-making was flawed.
“However, Seaton Town Council has decided that it cannot underwrite the costs of this first stage of judicial review.
“The Hospital League of Friends are prevented by their constitution from underwriting them, but they have opened a special bank account and a BT MyDonate site to collect funds for a review.
“I have therefore decided to launch an urgent appeal to raise the £20,000 needed to fund this first stage of a review. I am asking everyone in the area who cares about the hospital keeping its beds to donate so that we have the funds to take this forward.
“I am putting in £1,000 of my own money and I will use the rest of my councillor’s allowance of £10,000 to underwrite this campaign while donations come in.
“Over the last 48 hours I have raised several thousand pounds in donations of from £10 to £250 and I have therefore instructed solicitors this morning to prepare a letter before action to the CCG by the end of the week.
“However I still need to raise most of my target of £20,000 in the next two weeks.”
At its meeting on May 2, Seaton Town Council voted against proceeding with legal action against the Clinical Commissioning Group as the potential cost of undertaking a Judicial Review is at least £100,000.
Neither Seaton Town Council or Seaton Hospital League of Friends are in a financial position to underwrite this cost pending public donations and both parties, having considered the advice given, felt the case for Judicial Review was not as strong as they hoped it would be.
A town council spokesman said: “The Council and the Seaton Hospital League of Friends will continue to do everything that it can including lobbying the Devon County Council Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, the local MP and the Secretary of State over the matter.
Mayor of Seaton, Cllr Marcus Hartnell, said: “While the Council is not in a position to proceed to Judicial Review this is not the end of the matter. We will work with our colleagues at the League of Friends to continue to fight this decision.”
Funds can be donated at https://mydonate.bt.com/donation/start.html?charit… and in order to donate for judicial review, people must write ‘judicial review’ in the ‘personalise your donation’ box.
It is also important that people email Cllr Shaw cllrmartinshaw@gmail.com to inform him of their donation, so that he knows how much money has been raised.
The League of Friends has said that if money is donated which is not used for judicial review, donors will have the option of having their money returned, or donating it to support the work of the hospital.
