I AM appalled at the proposal to sell off Pershore Cottage Hospital in order to pay of a debt run up by the whole of Worcestershire.

The reason we have our hospital in the first place is thanks to our ancestors who matched the £500 that Charles Ganderton left in 1893.

To add insult to injury, we will have little time to investigate and comment on this proposal.

When I attended the South Worcestershire PCT board meeting last Tuesday, it was said that the proposed savings need to be used to form both a delivery plan for the end of March and the budget for the beginning of April.

If this is the case, how can SWPCT claim to be willing to investigate other options for Pershore when they need to raise £1.2 million from capital assets to use as revenue?

Of course we would like a new hospital in Pershore but what we would have preferred is that money had been spent on the existing hospital over the years instead of running it down.

Most of the improvements and extras have been paid for by the Friends who in turn are funded mainly by the Pershore people.

TED ANNIS, Pershore town councillor, Farleigh Road, Pershore.