Health chiefs hailed for axing Ludlow hospital bid

Joyce Brand, who helped lead the Save a Ludlow Town Surgery (Salts) which challenged the rationale behind the push for the new facility, said she was grateful the plans had been scrapped before the construction stage was reached.

Members of Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust voted not to proceed with the controversial scheme, which had been planned for the Eco Park on the outskirts of town, at a meeting on Thursday.

The development would have included the relocation of Ludlow's two GP surgeries.

Mrs Brand said she was impressed with the trust's interim chief executive Julia Bridgewater for admitting the project was not financially viable.

"There was a preparation for what was going to be said. It didn't come as a surprise," she said. "I thought how courageous of the new management. It must have been terribly hard to face people who had campaigned for the hospital."

The meeting on Thursday was told there was a potential £1.1 million annual funding shortfall for the scheme.

Salts had objected to the hospital plans on the grounds that the Portcullis and Station Drive GP surgeries would have moved away from the town centre.

Mrs Brand said: "All in all, I feel thank God they intervened before we had actually got a building that was not going to be used very much unless it went into the private sector."

As an alternative it has been agreed £160,000 will be ploughed into Ludlow's existing community hospital.