So far more than 3,000 people have signed an Evening Star petition against the move by sending in slips from the paper and filling in forms online.

So far more than 3,000 people have signed an Evening Star petition against the move by sending in slips from the paper and filling in forms online.

Yet in the Anglia Cancer Network's (ACN) board papers the unelected and unaccountable body writes: “The Ipswich Evening Star ran a public campaign opposing the proposals. However, only 845 slips were returned not the thousands claimed.”

The Star handed over a large selection of petitions it had received to make a point to the bosses running the consultation that thousands of people were against the move. It was not asked to do so by the ACN.

And once the Star arranged to hand over its petitions it was not asked to hand over all of them.

The hundreds completed online, the many with poignant stories, the petitions sent to the Star after the consultation ended - none of these were included in the selection handed across.

And the Star was never contacted by the ACN to ask for more of the petitions, or to ask why the Star was publishing that more than 2,000 people had responded when the ACN didn't agree with that figure.

And even in the CAN's own board papers it admits that while 845 slips were handed to them that amounted to 1,239 people, with many slips being signed by two or three concerned people.