MY job is to pass over the erratic and somewhat self-serving approach of Malvern Hills District Council to the Malvern Hospital.

I will, of course, do everything I can to enable the hospital to be built. It would be appalling if party politics played any part in this matter.

If the plan is for the MHDC to borrow the money and to finance the building itself, so be it. It will require help, which I will readily give, to persuade central Govern-ment to lend the money.

The key will be to get the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust to finance the operating costs, including the rental of the building, which must not be a further burden on the Council Tax-payer.

What has to be sorted out first - as has been the case all along - is the precise nature of the hospital itself: How many beds? What services?

The consultation process must switch immediately to these issues. We do need a business plan. Until this is available any progress will at best be halting.

Sir Michael Spicer MP, House of Commons, London.