DURING recent weeks, three items in the BEN have caught my attention.

Firstly, the Muslims' concern for their children's safety -- hence application is made for a new mosque. Congratulations to them for their concern.

Secondly, a new station planned for Westhoughton to improve service to that town.

The third one was a photograph of the new Pikes Lane Health Centre, ideally sited for the 3D's area.

This is an ultra-modern centre, well planned and presumably incorporating every modern facility to hand. Whereas the 11 million residents in the hospital catchment area have to be served by an ancient and modern complex dating from 1860, making it an extremely expensive roaming so-called health site, around an incinerator, to operate.

The time their sprawling buildings force staff to waste, and thus money, is ridiculous, and most unfair to the hard working staff. If there was publicity in it with a few 'gongs' at the end, a new town-sited hospital would be on the books. But, of course, the only consideration is votes at the election, and it is the ordinary people and their money being wasted.

When will Bolton and district demand equality, and a new state-of-the-art town centre hospital, from the money the Blair gang are always promising to the towns north of the Watford Gap.

With sensible planning and negotiations this could be achieved at very little cost, which could be recovered from the present expensive running costs. Also the economy could be applied to additional staff, thus giving some relief to the present hard-pressed professional staff. One cannot include the administrative staff in this category, as, if they could be so included, they would soon realise that something had to be done to alleviate the situation of trying to squeeze 11 million patients' treatment into a hospital with roughly over 1,000 beds, and a catchment area stretching from Rochdale to Horwich, Egerton, Salford, and all stops in between, instead of complacency, which I hear very often when in the hospital.

Put the pressure on the Blair Gang and demand a part of that £16 billion War Chest they are sitting on. The choice is yours.

Dorothy B Waters

Winifred Road, Farnworth.