Durrow Consultants have been working on a scheme for the Friends of Ludlow Hospital and South Shropshire District Council.

And residents will get the chance to find out how the town’s hospital could be saved from ward closure proposals during a meeting at St Peter’s Church on September 6.

The Friends of Ludlow Hospital believe a new charitable trust could be established so that the hospital’s Clee and Whitcliffe wards do not have to close.

And they hope the Durrow findings will add weight to their recommendation, so that bosses from Shropshire Primary Care Trust agree to work with them.

Thousands of residents in Ludlow have plans by the primary care trust to axe the Whitcliffe and Clee wards.

The trust says cuts are essential because it needs to make huge savings.

But local residents say the closures would lead to reduced services, with many patients being transferred more than 25 miles away to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Meanwhile, Peter Corfield, chairman of the Friends of Ludlow Hospital, has sent more than 200 opposition letters to the primary care trust from people who have outlined their reasons for objecting to the plans.

He said people could also write directly to the trust’s closure programme director, Clive Walsh, at Shropshire County PCT, William Farr House, Mytton Oak Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 8XL. The public consultation ends on September 29.

About 2,000 people marched through Ludlow in opposition to the closure plans.