THOUGH it is not yet clinched, the plan to build a £14million new hospital for Rossendale now about to be put before the public by Burnley health trust bosses may ease the long-standing concerns of Valley residents over the erosion and centralisation elsewhere of hospital services.

For against that background, such suspicions and even fear of the total closure of Rossendale General have prevailed for years.

Now, with the backing up of the intention the trust announced last year of replacing the Valley's 100-year-old hospital with a new one by them putting out to public consultation their proposals for a new one on the lower part of the Haslingden Road site, the hope that Rossendale will get and retain the health services it deserves can be confidently expressed.

For, though this plan and the bid for the cash have yet to be submitted for approval to the NHS Regional Executive, the fact that the development may be funded in part by disposal of some of the land at the Rossendale General site for new housing strengthens the expectation that an end is now in sight to the doubt and delay over the provision of hospital care in the Valley.