Hucknall MP says 'embarrassed' Ashfield Independents don't have money for new medical centre

And he has accused Ashfield District Council leader Coun Jason Zadrozny of being ‘too embarrassed’ to admit he hadn’t got the funds in place for the centre, which is planned to be built on part of Piggins Croft car park in the town.

The funding row has blown up after health minister Ed Argar wrote to Mr Spencer about his concerns for the project after Coun Zadrozny announced last month that it would going ahead.

Mr Argar said this suggested the Independents had funding in place and that any proposed bids for government funding would be put on hold until this was clarified.

But Mr Spencer said he did not believe the Independents had the funding in place and that he has now written to Mr Argar asking him to proceed with getting Government funding for the project.

Mr Spencer said: “Last week, I wrote to Jason Zadrozny, and I highlighted that this matter was urgent, but he did not respond.

“I have to take from this, that either the Ashfield Independents don’t have the money, and they are too embarrassed to admit it – or they don’t particularly care about Hucknall

“Frankly, I think it’s both.

“I want to get this health hub built, I want to get the money out of the Government.

"Jason and the Independents are just making this so difficult.

"Jason just needs to go on the record and say he hasn’t got the money.

"He needs to apologise to the minister for the confusion and leave Ed Argar and I to sort this out.

"Jason’s involvement has caused far too much damage already and we can’t have him meddling in this again.

“I hope we can get the minister to Hucknall to hammer out these issues and get the health hub back on track.”

Coun Zadrozny replied: “I find Mr Spencer’s email insulting.

"To claim that we don’t care about Hucknall is immature and shows he has no idea what’s going on in Hucknall.

"This week, I was proud to attend the opening of the plush new reception at Hucknall Leisure Centre.

"There are also new café services, new toilet facilities and the existing squash courts have been improved.

"Parks like Nabbs Lane and Titchfield Park have seen dramatic improvements.

"Hucknall is receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in investment including the resurfacing of Piggin’s Croft car park.

"This is directly down to the hard graft of your Ashfield Independents councillors.

“I said on April 8 that we still need to formally submit and approve the plans but that won't be an issue as we're all in favour of it.

"This will be based on a car park that Ashfield District Council owns.

"We have been meeting with Nottinghamshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for more than a year now and these talks have been hugely successful.

"The new health centre will definitely happen, we will make sure of that.

Mr Spencer has been whingeing since the Conservatives lost every single seat in the elections on May 6 and I haven’t got time to play his political games

" I’m too busy delivering the very services for Hucknall that he failed to.”