Local MPs Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) and David Gauke (South West Herts) are organising with the help of Dacorum Hospital Action Group and others within the local community a protest march from Hemel Hempstead to Watford on Sunday 8th October.They will be leading the March in which a hospital trolley/bed will be pushed along the route. The trolley will carry a coffin containing the MP’s Save Hemel Hospital petition signed by thousands of local residents which the MP’s will present to Parliament in the following week. The object of the march and rally is to show the depth of feeling and protest in our community about the unnecessary cuts and closures in our local health services and the possible loss of some 750 health professional jobs in Hemel, St Albans and Watford.
The march will assemble at The Marlowes Band Stand at 9:30 for an initial address from the MP’s. The march will start at 10am sharp and will be accompanied by stewards and two police outriders. The proposed route has been approved by the police and the procession following the Hospital Bed will make its way along the Marlowes, Lawn Lane, Belswains Lane, Primrose Hill along Gallows Hill Lane, Hunton Bridge Hill and join the A41 at the Langleybury junction. The march will continue into Watford Town Centre along the Hempstead Road and assemble for another rally in the Town Hall Square, opposite M&S by the church. Following this the bed will then be pushed to Watford Hospital where the protest will finish.
The March is being organised by a team of local activists led by, Jan Maddern They will be organising leaflets to be handed out on route together with a few posters and banners. Marchers are encouraged to bring their own banners, placards and the like if they can. Pubs on the route will be warned of the march and invited to support the marchers with toilette facilities and refreshments. During the course of the march a collection will be made to raise money for the Hospice of St Francis and the Peace Hospice in Watford. Marchers are invited to obtain sponsorship for their walk to also raise monies for these Hospices.
The success of this protest will depend to a great extent on the media exposure that it can attract.