Yes! It would be marvellous to have a brand new hospital on the John Moore Barracks site! (Chronicle, Letters, March 28).

And it is quite true as your correspondent Mr Briggs has pointed out, that the site has excellent vehicular links. 

So good for you, Danny Chambers, for coming up with such a brilliant solution. Except it's just not going to happen.

As Steve Brine explained in this paper, the NHS Trust formed in 2012 comprises Winchester and Basingstoke (and Andover). Both the main hospitals in Basingstoke and Winchester need urgent updating. 

Consultants at both hospitals have expressed a desire to have a `centre of excellence' containing all the very best innovative medical equipment. And the Government has pledged to fund this. So, the obvious place for this new hospital would be between the two major conurbations. People in Basingstoke would be up in arms, deluging the Basingstoke Gazette with letters of complaint, if the new hospital was sited in Winchester. 

The Lib Dem parliamentary candidate would be organising petitions, making it headline news in his leaflets. But of course he's not - he just diplomatically wants better services, close to home.
As to Mr Selby's contention that the JMB site was never considered: it was! It was thought to be too small. Anyway, and here the sheer hypocrisy and double-think of the Lib Dem party is revealed: the barracks site has been identified in the Winchester City Council's draft plan as a large scale housing site. WCC is, at present, led by the Lib Dems. Double-think alert!

So is the blow-in from North Cornwall, Danny Chambers, monumentally ignorant, or stupid - or is he and his party here in Winchester just playing party politics. You decide.

But we've been here before. In 2017 Jackie Porter, campaigning to be MP, had the same brilliant idea of siting a new hospital in the Barracks. Another red herring - or should we say: yellow herring.

Annie Saunders,
East Street, 
Alresford

Send letters by email to newsdesk@hampshirechronicle.co.uk or by post to Editor, Hampshire Chronicle, 5 Upper Brook Street, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 8AL.

All letters and e-mails must include full names and addresses (anonymous letters will not be published), although these details may be withheld from publication, on request.

Letters of 300 words or less will be given priority, although all are subject to editing for reasons of clarity, space, or legal requirements. We reserve the right to edit letters.