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MAYOR Peggy Dow is to lead a delegation to the High Court in London in support of hospital campaigner Val Compton.

On Tuesday Coun Dow told the packed AGM of the Friends of Savernake Hospital that she and other town councillors would wear their official robes to the court hearing later this month.

The hearing on either May 21 or 22 is a preliminary to the judicial review to be held in July at the Royal Courts of Justice.

It was agreed on Tuesday to hire coaches to take people from the area to the court to show the judge the huge support for the legal action.

Support has already been shown by scores of pledges received by Mrs Compton of donations towards her court costs.

This week pledges ranging from £1 to £500 have been pouring into the Gazette office in Kingsbury Street, Marlborough, towards the £20,000 court costs that Mrs Compton would face if she loses the fight with the Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.

Mrs Compton's legal costs could have been limitless if an application by her barrister Guy Opperman to the High Court last week to have them capped at £20,000 had not been successful.

At Tuesday's meeting, attended by almost 200 people from a wide area, many more pledges were made in support of the campaign to get the Minor Injuries Unit and Day Hospital reopened at Savernake.

Friends' president Raymond White, who has been a member throughout its 50 years, said: "You have filled the hall and it is so encouraging to see so many people supporting us."

Chairman Paul Lefever spoke about the closures last September of the MIU, the Day Hospital and the mental health unit at Savernake.

He spoke of the huge campaign to save them, the week-long vigil before the MIU closed and the mass turn out of supporters on its final night.

Mr Lefever praised the ongoing battle by Mrs Compton on behalf of CASH (Community Action for Savernake Hospital) that was set up to contest the closures.

Mr Opperman, who is giving his services for free, told the meeting that he had been born at Savernake Hospital and without its medical care both he and his mother would have died.

He said that people who owed their lives to treatment at the MIU in the weeks leading up to its closure - including Gazette photogragher Paul Morris who suffered anaphylactic shock after a bee sting - would have died after it closed on September 30. He said the way Wiltshire Primary Care Trust brought about the closures "left no choice but to go to law".

Mrs Compton's legal challenge to the closures was being seen as a test case.

"It is a very important test case which is being very closely observed throughout the country," the barrister said.

He said the day hospital and MIU had been mothballed pending the outcome of Mrs Compton's legal fight.

Local GP Dr Jonathan Glover told the meeting he believed the PCT had reduced services across the county knowing that many people would not seek treatment elsewhere.

"This is where the PCT is saving money and I am sure this was their plan all along," Dr Glover said. "People's health will suffer because of this."

Send your pledges of support for Mrs Compton's legal fight via the Gazette office at 42 Kingsbury Street, Marlborough SN8 1JA, or e-mail nkerton@newswilts.co.uk

9:52am Friday 2nd May 2008

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