Smart uses maiden speech to press for action on Stepping Hill

The desperate state of Stepping Hill Hospital – with new videos emerging earlier this week of flooded corridors – was the top priority raised on behalf of the constituency in new MP Lisa Smart’s maiden speech to Parliament yesterday [25/07/2024].

Lisa said: “My constituents shouldn’t have a hospital that is literally falling down. They shouldn’t have to wait months and years for treatment, and they shouldn’t have to struggle to care for their loved ones.

“The phenomenal staff at Stepping Hill shouldn’t have to wade through flooded corridors to get to their patients, because yet another pipe has burst, as it did this weekend. 

“Stepping Hill must get the repairs it needs, and we need a new additional hospital in the town centre so that local people can get the health and social care services they deserve. I will not rest until they do. 

She also called on the Government to publish their plans for dealing with the sewage scandal which has damaged the local rivers: the Goyt, the Mersey and the Tame. 

And she also used the opportunity to speak to the House about the much missed former MP for Hazel Grove, Andrew Stunell, an inspiration for the new holder of the seat.

She said: “Andrew was that rare kind of politician who gave politics and good name. He was interested in doing something, not just being something. He was an MP who set the standard to which all who came after him are rightly held. 

“He helped me work out what it was to make a difference in public life. The people of Hazel Grove, the whole Lib Dem family, and I, will miss him and his guidance hugely.”