More than 10,000 people have backed a petition declaring a vote of no confidence in the Government’s Success Regime.

The We Need West Cumberland Hospital campaign group launched the petition in September after plans to cut maternity, paediatrics and urgent care services in Whitehaven were unveiled.

It has now been signed by a total of 10,280 people, all agreeing the Success Regime has failed in its objectives.

Those signing back a vote of no confidence in the Regime and associated organisations North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust and NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group.

The signatures have been collected both online and on paper petitions, with groups of campaigners holding stalls at local supermarkets over the past few months to help spread the word.

They have been supported by Copeland MP Jamie Reed.

The petition states: “The people who live, work and visit west Cumbria are signing this petition as a vote of no confidence in the Success Regime and the associated organisations. The Success Regime has failed to meet the stated aims of the programme to look at health care in Cumbria launched on September 18, 2015.”

The Regime conducted an extensive engagement project prior to drawing up its options for local health services.

This included high-profile public meetings, during which hundreds of people turned out to stress the need for maternity, paediatrics and other urgent care to remain at the West Cumberland Hospital, as well as community hospital beds to be protected.

Many others submitted individual responses or made comments via the so-called Chatty Van, which toured the area.

Yet when the Healthcare for the Future consultation was unveiled on September 26, 2016 – a year after the original Success Regime launch – its preferred options were to remove consultant-led maternity services, downgrade children’s services and transfer more emergencies, including all strokes, to Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary. It also proposed closing cottage hospital beds.

The petition states: “The document that the Success Regime issued does not offer options that are acceptable to the people of west Cumbria therefore cannot be considered by us as a credible consultation document.

“We do not believe that the Success Regime has the best interests of the community, patients and staff at heart, we do not trust their decision making and question their integrity.”

Annette Robson, from the hospital campaign group, urged people to continue signing the ‘Vote of No Confidence in the Success Regime’ petition, which is online at change.org.

“What’s at stake? Our maternity unit, children’s services, acute trauma and A&E department are all in jeopardy,” she stressed.