A DETERMINED mother's campaign to see post-natal services return to Wyre Forest Birth Centre has won the support of a leading MP who paid his first visit to Kidderminster to discuss her actions.

Elizabeth Bytheway and fellow campaigner, Tonia Heywood, gave shadow minister for health, Chris Grayling, chapter and verse on their work so far and the MP said the topic was of "great relevance" to him because there was talk of setting up a birth centre in his constituency of Epsom.

During the meeting, on Wednesday last week - which was arranged and attended by the Conservative Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Wyre Forest, Mark Garnier - Mrs Bytheway was keen to stress that her campaign was public, not political.

She explained she believed the district's primary care trust would commission services at the birth centre if it was proven that the public and local GPs wanted it and the latest leg of her campaign - a survey asking whether people wanted their GPs to act on their behalf to get postnatal service reinstated at the facility - was intended to gain the support of doctors.

Copies can be found at shops throughout the district, including Kidderminster Hospital League of Friends on Bewdley Road.

The first instalment of the campaign, as reported by the Shuttle/Times & News, was a petition that more than 3,000 people signed in three weeks.

Mrs Heywood added: "We don't want the birth centre to be reopened until it is 100 per cent safe but, first of all, we want postnatal services back because all the women we've spoken to want them back."

Mr Grayling, who admitted he had not read the birth centre inquiry report but said he intended to, said he believed the National Health Service had moved "too far away" from local provision. He added the birth centre was an issue that should not be party political and claimed a "key issue" in its future would be whether the money was available.

"The worry is also that the trust is, from memory, about £20 million in debt... it is hard to see it will have the resource to put back into reopening the facility in the near future," he said.

"I would be prepared to bet that unless the health service in this area strips off some of the fat and pushes money to the front line that they won't be able to close the deficit or be inclined to open new services or reopen existing services."