BANBURY Rotary Club has joined the list of campaigners fighting to save Banbury's Horton Hospital.

A letter from the Rotarians - a group of active and retired business people - has been sent to Trevor Campbell-Davis, the chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, which controls the Horton.

The letter said the Rotary Club was appalled by the continuing downgrading of services at the Horton, and their removal to Oxford.

It said they had concerns about what would happen in the event of a major motorway accident near Banbury if the nearest emergency department was at Oxford, and it feared businesses might move away from Banbury if health services were not at hand.

The letter said the failure of the local health services would become apparent when the first person died while travelling to Oxford because of the lack of facilities in Banbury.

The Rotarians highlighted difficulties that would be faced by people without cars who wanted to travel to Oxford to visit sick relatives - and posed the question: "If services were removed from Oxford hospitals and transferred to Banbury, would Oxford people accept travelling 30 miles for treatment?"