A hundred protesters fighting to preserve Torbay’s health services greeted Torbay councillors as they met to answer questions on the issue.
Many of the protesters backing the locally-based Heart Campaign wore red in support of their cause. They were there to hand in a petition calling on Torbay Council to stop funding laboratories at Gadeon House on the Pynes Hill business park in Exeter, the former headquarters of EDF Energy.
The council owns the building as part of its portfolio of out-of-the-bay assets, and is allocating £7.5million to kit it out so that the Exeter’s health trust can use two of its floors.
The Torbay and South Devon health trust wants to use its other floor to house laboratories which are currently in a state of disrepair on the Torbay Hospital site.
The trust says its Torbay campus will still be able to cope with emergencies, and denies claims that moving the lab to Exeter is part of a gradual downgrading of facilities at Torbay.
Protesters, however, say the Gadeon House project should be stopped. Some councillors were heckled as they walked into the Riviera Centre for the meeting.
Heart Campaign founder Susie Colley said: “Gadeon House is owned by Torbay Council, but they are using ratepayers’ money to kit it out so they can move the pathology department from Torbay Hospital to Exeter.
“Our lives will be in jeopardy if they do, so the answer is no to Gadeon House. Don’t spend our money on something that is going to benefit the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
“It is not going to benefit the people of Torbay.”
During the meeting Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) explained that Exeter’s health trust approached Torbay Council looking to take over two empty floors of the building to use as laboratories on 25-year leases. The Torbay and South Devon health trust has applied to use the third floor, also on a ‘commercial basis’.
It has not yet confirmed what it wants the space for, but has given reassurances that emergency care will be safeguarded.
“We could have said no,” said Cllr Lewis. “We could have told them to find their own property, but we would have lost a lot of money in rent. That money could have gone to a Chinese company instead, with the money going to Beijing.
“I think it’s much better that we rent the property out and the money comes back to the good people of Torbay.”
He said the out-of-town properties made £4million a year for Torbay Council to be spent on local services, and leaving three floors of Gadeon House empty would have cut that income considerably.
But campaigners were not impressed. One called out ‘shame on you’ as she left the meeting while another shouted: “We are leaving because we have been totally dismissed.”
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