It is hardly surprising that the people of Bingley are concerned about the future of their health services. Airedale NHS Trust is due to close the hospital in Fernbank Drive later this year as part of a huge shake-up to try to address a £1.6 million shortfall, yet there is still no news of a site being chosen for the health centre which is supposed to be replacing it by the end of 2004.

The obvious question taxing the minds of local people is: where are the physiotherapy patients who are treated at the hospital each day, plus other outpatients and the elderly people who use the day centre, to go in the meantime? And hard on the heels of that question must come a doubt: if alternative arrangements are made for the interim, is there a danger that they could become permanent with the health-centre plan shelved indefinitely?

Bingley is an expanding and developing town. A huge amount of building is going on around it in the Aire Valley. The infrastructure of roads and schools is overstretched. It is vitally important, given the steady growth in the general population and the increase in the number of elderly people, that health facilities keep pace.

Bingley as a town, with all the villages that surround it, is a big enough centre to warrant a top-notch facility of its own without its residents having to travel to Eastburn or Bradford for treatment. If the trust insists on closing the hospital before the new centre is built, it is important that it makes arrangements for services in the interim to be kept in the town.