4,000 join Pendle Community Hospital closure protest

Campaigners who have been on the streets of local towns with petitions over recent weekends collected around 1,000 signatures in Burnley on Saturday as people queued up to sign, taking the total number of signatories to more than 3,600.

And the number of coupons returned to newspapers since we launched the campaign against the proposed cuts has topped 250.

Spokesman Azhar Ali described the results as “fantastic” and hopes to be able to announce the dates for public meetings to discuss the closure proposals at the hospital with NHS East Lancashire bosses next week.

“They said they would listen if we got 5,000 names and we hope to reach that figure this weekend as we will be out in Colne, Barrowford and Burnley tomorrow,” he said. “Will they act - or will they listen?”