Skipton still has up to four years to wait for a new hospital in the town.

It is two years since Craven, Harrogate and Rural District Primary Care Trust first consulted local people, who said they wanted a range of services at a modernised Skipton General Hospital.

This entailed having access to existing services but also additional facilities such as social services, mental health and diagnostics. They also wanted Dyneley House doctors to move to the site.

At an "information sharing" session in Skipton this week, the PCT gave a progress report and unveiled four options for the Keighley Road site.

The options are:

o leaving the 74-year-old hospital as it is, only refurbishing it to comply with disability legislation, and not expanding the services currently offered;

o developing services by refurbishing and extending the current buildings;

o developing services by demolishing the Victorian annexe and expanding on the 1960s outpatients wing;

o demolishing the hospital and replacing with a purpose-built medical centre. It is likely the wall separating the hospital from Keighley Road would be demolished to open up the site as a "public plaza" and there would be a bus stop at the hospital.

Preliminary plans for the four options have been drawn up by architects, but the PCT is eager to stress that no decisions have been made.

Trust director Judi Goddard said it would be summer before a "preferred option" was put before the PCT board for a decision.

This would have to be ratified by the Strategic Health Authority before architects could go back to the drawing board to develop the plans and firm decisions could be made on which services would occupy the new centre.

The timescale of development will differ depending on which option the PCT proceeds with, but it is not anticipated Skipton will have a new hospital before 2009/10.

North Craven residents were also updated on the proposals for Settle at a separate meeting at the town's Victoria Hall on Tuesday.

The options include leaving health services as they are, revamping and enlarging the Townhead surgery and health centre site, or building a completely new purpose-built multi-health facility adjacent to Castleberg Hospital.

This could house a range of primary, community and intermediate care services and could include a dentist, pharmacist as well as facilities for optometrists, diabetes patients, and care services for the young and the elderly.

As with the Skipton event, the evening at the Victoria Hall provided members of the public with an update on how the plans were progressing.

PCT chairman Brigadier Johnny Wardle told the meeting that they were looking at health care provision for the future and their plans had to look at whether they would provide value for money.

"We have got to make sure that the services we are providing in the building are affordable and that they will sustain that investment," he said.

Brigadier Wardle added that there was a division of opinion between residents and people from the wider area who used the services in the town.

There was concern not only about a shortage of car parking near the Townhead site - although car parking provision in the plans is greatly improved - but also about the "isolated" position of Castleberg and fears that Giggleswick village may suffer through the additional footfall.

The five options put forward for North Craven are:

* do nothing;

* a complete new build at Castleberg, incorporating health facilities currently located at Townhead;

o revamped health centre facilities at Townhead site, with intermediate care beds in new build accommodation at Castleberg;

* revamped health centre facilities at Townhead, with intermediate care beds in refurbished accommodation at Castleberg;

* revamped health centre facilities at Townhead, with intermediate care beds provided by a non-NHS provider from non-NHS premises.

Architects who have drawn up plans stated that many things would "tip the balance", one of which was whether planning regulations made them lean more towards one option than another.

They told the meeting that new build at Castleberg would be created on the site with the present hospital used for residential development. Additional car parking would be created along with a bus turning area.

Plans for revamping Townhead include a three-storey building with 45 car parking spaces and a restriction on on-street parking.