[14 JAN 99] COVENTRY
CITY COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE
Leading Councillor Hits Back At
'Scaremongering' Over City Centre Hospital Coventry
City Council deputy leader Arthur Waugh has hit back at claims that a city centre hospital
would be less secure than the Walsgrave site, and that fear of crime in the city may
result in a city centre hospital facing difficulty in attracting staff.
The claims were attributed to chief executive of the
NHS Trust David Laughton, who favours the Walsgrave site.
Cllr Arthur Waugh said:
"Police figures for the city centre show a 76 per cent
reduction in car crime over the last ten years. This is a huge reduction and is evidence
of the success of crime reduction initiatives by the city council and in cooperation with
partner groups.
"There is no evidence to suggest that this downward
trend will change, but there is every reason to believe figures will continue to fall.
Coventry already has 14 'secure by design' car parks - that is the highest number of any
town or city in the whole of the West Midlands. Designing out crime will be part of plans
for the new hospital, wherever it is situated, and for anyone to suggest that the city
centre is a greater risk is no more than scaremongering.
"Mr Loughton himself refers to 'perceived worries'
about the city centre. The evidence clearly shows the reality to be far different. And
let's not have anyone pretend that crime does not go on outside the city centre. There
were 60 vehicles stolen from the Walsgrave Hospital site during 1998 and a further 26
broken into and property stolen. It is time to stop playing on people's fears and get down
to the real business of making sure this city gets its hospital where the majority of
people want it - and that's in the city centre."
NOTE:
In 1987 353 cars were stolen from Coventry city centre,
falling to 38 in 1998. Over the same period theft from motor vehicles in the city centre
fell from 826 to 157 in 1998.
MORE INFORMATION: Cllr Arthur Waugh
01203 831007
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