Leicester City Council has set aside a £50,000 fighting fund for the battle to secure children’s heart surgery at Glenfield Hospital.
The council is also beaming an appeal to people to support the campaign on to the wall of the Ramada Encore hotel opposite City Hall every evening from 4.30pm until 1am.
It is due to appear each day until the online Government petition deadline is reached on Sunday, January 22.
The move follows an announcement by NHS England earlier this year that surgery for children born with heart defects should stop in the city as Leicester’s hospitals were not, and were not expected to reach new national standards.
It is a claim which has been refuted by hospital bosses.
NHS England has said that a public consultation will be held early next year before any final decision is made.
Deputy city mayor Councillor Rory Palmer said: “Clearly as we get to the formal consultation it important that we plan for all eventualities.
“The £50,000 is a ‘just in case’ measure to make sure there is a pot should there be a need for legal or other costs, such as having to commission specialist work during the consultation and we will work with Leicester’s hospitals and other campaigners.”
Coun Palmer, who also chairs the city’s health and well being board, is hoping the message being beamed on to the Ramada Encore hotel at the entrance to the cultural quarter will raise awareness of the fight and encourage people to sign an on-line petition.
He said: “We normally use this facility to advertise events for the cultural quarter but I would like to say thank you to the management at the Ramada for agreeing to this and for supporting the campaign.
“The hotel also has literature about the campaign in its reception.”
Coun Palmer added: “We need to keep this campaign in the public eye and keep driving up the number of signatures on the online petition.
“We also want to ensure that people have all the right information to generate responses to the public consultation.
“We know we have all the arguments in favour of Leicester’s hospitals and the need to keep the children’s heart centre.”
Just under 42,500 people have so far signed the online Government petition.
A map of signatories also shows that people from across the UK have lent their support to retaining the centre in Leicester.
A further 59,600 people have signed a paper copy of the petition.
Article originally published by Leicester Mercury
