A PETITION of 1,000 names collected by a local campaigner has gone missing in the Houses of Parliament.

Whaddon’s Terry Hutt tried to deliver the names, who were signing for the continuation of Royston Hospital, to the office of secretary of state for health and South Cambridgeshire MP Andrew Lansley in October.

Upon discovering Mr Lansley was not in his office, he gave it to former Labour sports minister Kate Hoey, who put it in Mr Lansley’s internal mail box.

It has since been lost, with neither MP knowing where it is, leaving Terry annoyed.

“I wrote to Mr Lansley on the October 22 to ask if I could present him with the petition but never got a reply,” he said.

“I then went up there on the 27 as I was protesting with pensioners about health cuts, and decided to take it with me anyway, just in case he was there.

“I stood in the lobby for three hours waiting for someone to take it up there and eventually Kate Hoey said she would get it to him. When I asked if they received it, they said they hadn’t.”

Terry chased them up last week to see if it had appeared yet, but there was still no sign of it.

“I do not understand how they can lose a petition of that size in a big envelope. These people are sitting in hot jobs and shouldn’t be losing things like this,” he said.

“I am wondering where it is as it makes a good point about how people care about the Royston Hospital. It cost me a lot of time and money to make the petition and deliver it.”

Neither Mr Lansley nor Miss Hoey knows what has happened to the petition.

A spokesperson for Andrew Lansley said: “Although my office has been made aware of the petition Mr Hutt coordinated, unfortunately Mr Hutt passed the petition to another MP and it never reached my office. However I am encouraged Mr Hutt’s continued commitment to his community.”

A spokesperson for Kate Hoey said: “I can confirm Kate Hoey MP received a petition at the end of October from Mr Terry Hutt for Andrew Lansley MP. Miss Hoey put the petition in the internal post at the House of Commons for the attention of Mr Lansley.”

Meanwhile, news on the future of Royston Hospital is expected from NHS Hertfordshire next week.