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.

Harold Best 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 (Lab, Leeds North West) said there were good arguments both for and against the bypass proposal but added: "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."

But Mr Cohen, secretary of the Wharfedale Environmental Trust, a group which aims to protect and enhance the environment in the Wharfe Valley, said 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.''

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