A NEW hospital in five years? Guarded words and vague promises. Evesham is being drawn into a false sense of hope and I hope we do not fall for it.

No response from the Minister herself, but from one of her minions in the Customer Services Centre. Well, they seem to forget that old adage that "the customer is always right". We, as the customers pay the bills via taxation and National Insurance contributions, and a low level response is just not good enough. This Government has repeatedly treated the whole electorate with contempt, suggesting they know what is best for us, well, they had better start taking notice of this little corner of England because they are not listening to what we the electorate wants.

Huge sums of money have been raised and private donations made, to both of Evesham's hospitals over very long periods of time. Briar Close Hospital was built with the aid of public donations and when it was sold did any of the money get returned to the public in the form of better facilities at Waterside? Perhaps when the public makes donations they should have conditions attached to them to prevent officials treating the money given as something they do not have to pay back, the pay back being keeping the hospital open. I would imagine that when the people who made gifts and donations to the Health Service, did not envisage the closure of both of Evesham's Hospitals.

Mr Ridley stressed that any new facility should be based on local demand, but goes on to say that the beds are not Evesham beds but NHS beds and available to all. Is this not a contradiction in terms? So we might get a new facility but we might not be able to use it if we are ill because people from other areas have been allocated the beds. Beware of all the spin and double talk and listen to what they are not saying.

If I may indulge myself just a little further, could anyone confirm what my late father in law always believed, that Merstow Green is actually common land. If he was right there should not be any car park charges (he never paid even when challenged by a traffic warden, and never got a fine).

AP HARTWELL, Buckland Road, Childswickham.