Tory councillors planned to eject an NHS vaccine hub from a sports arena to make room for an election count, the Mirror can reveal.
Boris Johnson visited the Derby Arena vaccination centre on February 8, and praised the “fantastic” work of staff giving jabs to thousands of patients.
But just ten days later, members of Conservative-led Derby Council were plotting to kick the NHS out of the building for two days.
The Council had inserted a get-out clause in the contract allowing health workers to use their arena, so they could have the building to themselves for a local election count in early May.
And a senior member of the council told colleagues the NHS would be to blame for any cancelled appointments during the two days, because they “c**ked up the booking system.”
On Monday night, Derby Council issued a statement claiming they had been “working to determine alternative count arrangements” since February 5, when the government announced the election was to go ahead.
And they said that while a new venue had not been decided, they confirmed the NHS would not now be asked to vacate the Arena.
But WhatsApp messages seen by the Mirror show that on February 18, weeks after the election was confirmed, Councillors still planned to boot the vaccine centre out.
In a group chat for the council’s ruling Conservative group, Cllr Mick Barker, the cabinet member for Governance & Licensing, blamed the NHS for failing to update their systems to account for the two day eviction.
“The election is set, the [Returning Officer] is appointed, the premises contractually booked and the count will go ahead,” he said.
“Nothing we say or do can alter that - only draw attention to it.
“We’ve pointed out to NHS their error on the booking system, no doubt replicated elsewhere in the country. It’s up to them to put it right.”
He added: “It’s already written into the NHS CONTRACT that we take back possession for two days - that has been known for weeks.”
Some councillors pushed back against the plans, saying they would “cost us a lot of votes”.
And one warned: “The more fuss we make about it internally, the more the public will be alerted”
One fellow councillor urged Cllr Barker to “put this to bed” and “do the right thing.”
But Cllr Barker responded: “It is put to bed - the Arena will be used - as will other such Centres throughout the country.
“This just isn’t a Derby problem and nobody would have realised if presumably the NHS hadn’t c**ked up the booking system!”
And he lashed out at his own party’s government, saying they had “foisted this election upon us during the pandemic!”.
Over the weekend, Labour group leader Cllr Baggy Shanker wrote an open letter to the council’s Chief Executive and Leader, demanding they waive the clause in the contract.
And at a meeting on Monday night, Councillors confirmed alternative venues were being considered - including a large marquee in the Arena’s car park.
Mr Shanker said: “The smooth operation of vaccinations at the arena have been a tribute to everyone involved, particularly our NHS colleagues who have worked tirelessly.
“It is an outrage that our local Tories were planning to evict them – and an even bigger disgrace that they were ready to heap more pressure on by saying it was the NHS’s problem, with everything else they’re facing.
“Having created the problem, they just needed to put politics aside and resolve it.
“Instead, they cynically put their fears over lost election votes first, talked about keeping things quiet from the public and tried to blame council officers to protect themselves. I am totally appalled.”
Emily Feenan, Derby City Council’s Returning Officer said: “The vaccination programme has been a hugely positive step in our efforts to reduce cases of COVID in the city, and indeed across the UK.
“Since the Arena was earmarked as a vaccination centre last year, we knew that there would be a crossover with local and PCC elections.
“The Government confirmed in February that the 2021 local and PCC elections would go ahead, and since then our officers have been working to determine alternative count locations, to allow the vaccination centre to remain open and administering vaccinations.”
