THE completion of the Otley bypass may be an important element in the future of a new hospital for the area, says the town's MP.

Speaking to the Wharfedale Observer this week, Harold Best (Lab, Leeds North West) said there was a powerful argument in favour of the building of the East of Otley relief road - and that ease of access to a

possible new hospital at Garnett's Mill could be a major benefit.

But Martin Cohen, the

secretary of an environmental campaigning group, believes that a large new hospital in the town, and a road to serve it, would sprawl Otley into Leeds.

Mr Best said there were good arguments both for and against the bypass proposal but that: " The possibility of the re-siting of the hospital to Garnett's Mill would be one of these degrees of benefit that would flow from it, in that it would ease access to the hospital, and this is one of those things that you just have to bear in mind.

"It may be an important element in the future of the hospital. This question of where the hospital is to be sited is one of some importance and it may be that it would fit in comfortably with that particular proposal."

"It is a case of looking for a balanced approach for meeting the requirements of ease of access and essential services, and balancing that against environmental benefit or loss. It is about degrees of benefit to all concerned."

He added: "At the moment, given the proposals I have had placed before me, I think there is a very powerful case for the bypass."

However, Mr Best also said he had always had a firm commitment to protecting the green belt areas of the district and that the issue was a complex one where the views of all concerned would have to be borne in mind. He said: "All the various lobbying groups have legitimate cases to make and have to be borne in mind. I cannot take a single view."

But Martin Cohen, secretary of the Wharfedale Environ-mental Trust - a group which aims to protect and enhance the environment in the Wharfe Valley, said its members were opposed to completing an Otley bypass and would favour keeping a new Wharfedale Hospital small and local.

He said: "The Wharfe Valley is continually being torn in two by the two cities. What is right for the Wharfe Valley isn't necessarily what the planners in the city say and I think Harold Best looks at it from the point of view of a Leeds person.

"I think you would have to put in an extra section of road for a big project like that. We don't think it is in Otley's interests for the hospital to be re-sited there (Garnett's Mill), primarily because if it was done as described, it would tend to create a new section of Otley along this road which isn't really a bypass. It would facilitate through-traffic, which would increase and at the same time it would actually encourage lots of new local traffic."

l The public consultation on where to build the new hospital ends on September 26.

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