TWO public governors have resigned their posts at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust because of what they have termed their ‘frustrations’ over the role.

David King and Bob Bryant both independently handed in their resignations on Monday after months of arguments between the governors’ council and the hospital’s executive board.

On Tuesday Birchwood, Woolston and Rixton governor David King said he had left because he could not foresee a situation where the hospitals’ executive board and the governors’ council could work together.

“The way the role of the governor was defined by the Government when this was set up is vague. They key phrase is that we’re supposed to be critical friends.

“All the time the executive board has to manage the hospital and the resources so that is constraining having to make decisions without reference to the governors and I don’t know how that problem could ever be addressed in any way.

“The two roles are not really compatible and the reason for me resigning was that I could not see the role of a public governor and the hospital management ever working in harmony.”

He also said that the ‘standard of communication in certain matters was unacceptable’.

Earlier this year the Warrington Guardian revealed that the executive board had been awarded £69,000 between them in pay rises.Governors later said at a meeting in July that they had not been aware of the rises until they saw them in the paper.

This week Bob Bryant, Norton South, Halton Brook and Halton Lea governor, said he had been elected as a ‘governor of something I am not allowed to govern’.

Anger over the way the executive board treated plans to charge visitors for the shuttle bus between the two hospital sites was behind his resignation.

“Statements were made by certain people that Halton residents were misusing the bus. Charges were made and allegations were made without any foundation whatsoever,” he said.

At a governors’ meeting in July Mr Bryant challenged the allegations that residents were using the free bus to go shopping, but his opposition was not noted in the minutes, he said.

“I felt that decisions were being made before they came to us and we were there just to ratify them.”

In his resignation letter to the hospitals’ chairman Allan Massey he said: “I was elected to represent the members of the public and voice their issues but found that the decisions are made without consultation with governors. In effect, they have no voice or authority to make suggestions.”

Mr Bryant also criticised the new entrance at Halton Hospital, built at a cost of nearly £250,000, which is not suitable for disabled people.

Himself a wheelchair user, he had told management that the entrance was not suitable but said at this year’s AGM that his concerns were ignored.

A spokesman for the hospitals said: “Both Bob Bryant and David King have made an important contribution to the hospitals during their time as governors and we’d like to thank them for their time and effort over the last year.

“We have a group of dedicated governors with a real interest in improving services who are making excellent progress in developing these new roles and representing local people. That role will continue to develop in the future.”

Elections for their posts, and that of David Warrener who resigned after not attending a meeting since January, will be held shortly.