A COUNCILLOR is sticking by his controversial comments about Bridgwater's proposed new mental health hospital.

The Mercury reported last week how, at a Sedgemoor District Council development control meeting, Cllr David Preece said a proposed £17million medium-to-low secure facility in Dunball could create a “stigma” for Bridgwater.

He said: “We were known as 'smellophane'; now we are going to have the stigma of a mental hospital unit.”

That prompted several comments on this site.

One visitor wrote: “How can he get away with a comment like that and remain a councillor? The people who would be housed there probably can't help it that they have their illnesses.

“I am sure any person with a member of their family with a mental illness would be shocked and outraged by it and I think he should make a public apology.”

Leading national mental health charity Rethink said people with mental illness were misunderstood and discriminated against.

A charity spokesman said: “One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life, and everyone affected has the right to good quality care and treatment, wherever they live.”

Cllr Preece told the Mercury this week: “I stand by my comments regarding a possible stigma of having a medium-to-low risk unit located in Bridgwater,” adding: “I am a Bridgwater resident, born here and only want us to get a better image to enable more companies to come and set up in our area, creating higher paid jobs for our residents.”

He said he was concerned about the location of the proposed hospital, to be built by private firm Cygnet Healthcare, and was worried it could take in serious offenders, who had been reassessed as fit for medium to low secure units.