BACK in 1960, Nelson Town Council was seeking government support in a bid to keep open the casualty department at Reedyford Memorial Hospital.

It was threatened with closure by Burnley and District Hospital Management Committee, but councillors were protesting at the proposed closure – planned between certain hours.

Alderman R Hoggarth declared: “The NHS is not for the sole benefit of doctors, though some of them think it is.

“If the department is closed down it will create great hardship in the town. I want Nelson people to know the council is doing its best.”

All agreed that MP for Pendle, Sydney Silverman should be approached to put their case to the government.

Coun Miss Sylvia Wild felt that regional hospital boards, responsible for more than a quarter of a million people, needed to remember they weren’t dealing with facts and figures, but with human beings.

“These boards just act as though we don’t exist and will continue to do so as long as we have no means to make ourselves felt.

“A first-class casualty department at Reedyford is essential,” she added.

Coun Mrs E Bannister told how she had read of a child swallowing a toy and dying within eight minutes.

She pointed out: “What chance would a child have if that happened in Trawden and it had to be transported by ambulance to the other end of the division?”