Like the young boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes, Maldon District Council has finally seen sense.

In Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, weavers try to pull off a con claiming the suit is invisible and it takes a young boy to eventually point out the emperor is not actually wearing anything and everyone has been made to look stupid by the weavers.

In Maldon, the clinical commissioning group continued trying to convince residents they will get a hospital. Then they downgraded it to a “hub”.

A decade later the cry has finally come: “But you are not doing anything.”

Maldon District Council can no longer waste time and money to try and help the Clinical Commissioning Group given all the broken promises.

About ten years ago a reporter on the Standard ran a campaign alongside the council to save St Peter’s Hospital and push for a new facility.

Many of you signed the petition.

The promise was a new hospital was coming, the size and scale was under debate, but a new hospital was top priority.

Almost a decade later, not only will there be no new hospital but the plans have been downgraded so much it is now a health “hub” without beds.

The council was still supporting the scheme, probably because the alternative was to be forced to give up on a healthcare facility still so desperately needed.

But the reality is not only is a new hospital or “hub” still invisible so are any plans, a location or even a business case.

It is time for the Clinical Commissioning Group to stop weaving words and start laying bricks.