Scores of people with whistles, rattles and placards protested at the weekend against plans to replace Bicester's community hospital with a primary care centre without inpatient beds.

Councillor Les Sibley leads the protest against plans to replace Bicester community hospital

Around 200 people turned out for the rally in Garth Park, Bicester, on Saturday and heard speakers calling for Bicester to be given the 30-bed hospital it was promised in 1998.

Campaigners brought along two hospital beds and an air raid siren and chanted "Save our beds".

Leader of Cherwell District Council, Barry Wood, told the crowd: "I'm very pleased there are so many people here today. If there ever was a time in the history of his town we were ever going to need a 30-bed hospital, it is now.

"Soon there is going to be another housing estate, and over the next few years, four more."

Town councillor John Hanna and deputy mayor Ajit Bhart also addressed the rally, alongside local pensioner Burton Whitehead.

Mr Hanna said: "The hospital in Oxford is a long way away. Although the primary care trust says care in the community has changed, that doesn't work. People can't look after themselves and there aren't the social services staff to look after them."

Protester Mike Phillips, 73, of Whimbrel Close, Bicester, said: "I'm here because I think it's disgraceful we won't have a hospital. We deserve one, it's a growing place."

Mother-of-two Claudine Thompson, 34, of Leach Road, said: "People with young children use the cottage hospital for emergencies. I have used the hospital in emergencies when my kids were younger. It's peace of mind."

Nine-year-old Sophie Paylor and her dad, Vernon Paylor, of Villiers Road, also supported the rally.

Sophie, a pupil at St Edburg's Primary School, made her own banner, drawing pictures of beds and upset faces with the words: "Now I have a bed, this is what should happen -- more beds please."

Mr Paylor said: "I came home from work with my banner and Sophie took her pens out and started to write.

"She made the banner herself. I didn't give her any help."

Organiser Les Sibley, a town and district councillor, said: "I think we were able to demonstrate we are not going to stand by and let the Primary Care Trust run roughshod over us."

The trust said the hospital promised to Bicester was now unaffordable and unrealistic and a primary care centre, with beds provided by local care homes, offered the best use of current resources.