Recently a national newspaper (Sunday Times September 30) covered the setting up of a national charity called Help for Heroes, whose first goal is to raise between £5m and £8m pound for a new gym and swimming pool at Headley Court, a specialist rehabilitation centre for Service Personnel.
Helping to raise the profile of the Help For Heroes charity is Patrons, motoring correspondent and journalist, Jeremy Clarkson and his wife Francie.
Keen to acknowledge their support and the excellent work done by Headley Court is Councillor Peter Edgar, Councillor for Gosport Borough Council, in Hampshire and Spokesperson for the Save Haslar Taskforce, an organisation which has been fighting since 1999 to save the last military hospital.
Although de-commissioned as a service hospital Haslar is currently being run by the NHS with the assistance of Service Personnel and is carrying out more operations than ever before.
“We realise the excellent work that is being undertaken at Headley Court and long may it continue,” said Councillor Peter Edgar. “But what we believe people should be looking at is setting up a similar establishment here at The Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport. As well as a wealth of redundant buildings available that could immediately be opened up to take injured service personnel, there is more than enough accommodation for visiting families to stay close by. With its tranquil setting, amongst beautiful gardens overlooking the Solent, it is the ideal place for rest and recuperation for those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and, as it already has a swimming pool and gym it is ideally set up for physiotherapy sessions to aid physical recovery.”
The Royal Hospital Haslar was due to close by 2001 and yet 6 years later it is doing far more work than ever before, using not even a fraction of the buildings available. So vast is the site the Taskforce are not expecting the MoD to require more than just a fraction of it, just the necessary buildings to provide a super facility for the treatment of injured or recuperating service personnel.
Some blocks lend themselves to such a facility. Canada Block for instance was given to the people of Gosport by the Canadian Government. “The residents of Gosport would like nothing more than to see those beautiful buildings with their stunning views over the Solent utilised to help and treat our service men and women,” added Peter
“I believe it would be scandalous to give the MoD money to provide something which they already have in abundance right here at Haslar. I have no wish to detract from the great job done by Headley Court, I just want to say why limit the excellent service they provide to just one treatment facility when you have another one here and ready to open its doors. We would encourage Jeremy and Francie Clarkson, Bryn Parry and Sarah-Jane Shirreff to come down to Gosport and look around the site to see what it has to offer. After all nothing ventured, nothing gained and our men and women do deserve to be treated fairly and with respect after the fantastic job they have done for their country.”
