A FORMER hospitals chairman has branded a successor’s decision ‘unacceptable’ after she rejected his call for an independent inquiry on the decision to shut Burnley A&E.

Ian Woolley has been campaigning alongside former Burnley MP Peter Pike for an investigation into the 2007 move to shut Burnley’s accident and emergency unit and use only the Royal Blackburn to serve East Lancashire’s 500,000 population.

Incoming chairman Hazel Harding wrote to the duo earlier this month to inform them that the trust would not commission an inquiry.

The former Labour County Council leader said: “The trust does not share the view that a further independent external assessment of emergency care is necessary.”

Mr Woolley said: “Hazel Harding’s reply is not an acceptable reply.

"There are serious questions unanswered. There is no attempt to compare the East Lancs model of only one A&E with two models, which are working very well where they have two A&Es.

“There is no attempt to use this as an opportunity to settle this matter.

“Hazel is wrong to suggest that there is no reason for another inquiry when there is now clear evidence and very good reasons for doing quite the opposite.”

The Lancashire Telegraph asked Mrs Harding whether she wanted to reply to Mr Woolley’s comments but she declined to elaborate on her original response.

Meanwhile, the three-party group of politicians supporting the campaign now includes Pendle’s Labour MP Gordon Prentice, Pendle and Burnley Liberal Democrats such as Coun Tony Greaves, Coun Darren Reynolds and parliamentary candidate Coun Gordon Birtwistle and the Conservative’s Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

They say the fact that East Lancashire Hospitals’ new chief executive Diane Whittingham is also responsible for two successful A&Es in Halifax and Huddersfield – units just 5.2 miles apart that serve two towns with a smaller population than Burnley and Blackburn – supports their case, as does the example of separate units in Preston and Chorley.