Ref. 11856NURSE Betty Yates became a celebrity on Friday when she was asked to cut the first turf to mark the start of work on the new £9.8 million Savernake Hospital.

Grandmother Mrs Yates, an auxiliary nurse, is one of the longest serving employees at the Marlborough hospital having started work there 33 years ago.

Marlborough Mayor Bill Cavill, Kennet District Council chairman Peter Veasey and other civic dignitaries looked on as Mrs Yates performed the ceremony.

It is expected that the new hospital, the fifth one to be built by Chiltern Securities, will be open within 18 months.

It's likely that Prince Charles, who is expected to visit Marlborough in June for the town's 800th anniversary celebrations, will be invited to see the work progressing on the new hospital.

By then the steel frame of the main building should be in place behind the old hospital complex, which has served the town for the past 125 years.

The existing main building designed by the acclaimed architect Sir Gilbert Scott will become offices for the health service and local support groups.

To help finance the private finance initiative package, the part of the hospital site nearest the town has been sold for housing. Twenty five homes will be built after work on the hospital has been completed. Friday's ceremony brought to an end decades of campaigning and lobbying by local people determined that Marlborough would keep its hospital services.

There was mounting concern that the 19th century building was reaching the end of its life and no longer conformed to modern health care standards.

Campaigners led by Bill Spray, Ray White, retired Marlborough GP Dr Nick Maurice, and the late Tony Rankin, formed a group called SHIFT (Savernake Hospital Inquiry Fund Trust) which raised the money to pay for a survey on the area's future health needs.

The analysis of the role of Savernake Hospital in local health care was carried out by the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care.

It found that Savernake continued to play a vital role in providing hospital services.

Many believe it was the SHIFT-funded survey that persuaded health chiefs that Savernake Hospital should be replaced.

The new hospital will provide a 35- bed residential care unit, primarily for the over 65s, diagnostic and X-ray services, physiotherapy and other rehabilitation. Mental health services will be provided with the replacement of the pioneering Farmer Unit for elderly psychiatric care.

The minor injuries unit, which has became a major part of Savernake, will move into the new hospital.

The day hospital will continue to function during the construction and will continue in the new hospital.

Chiltern Securities, which is employing civil engineering contractors Amec to build the new hospital, will lease it back to the health service for 30 years when it will then finally become the property of the health service.

Gwenda Deadman, project manager for Amec, said: "Work started on monday on the access with the A4 ."

Preparation work on the hospital site will begin on January 17 and construction on April 5.

Tim Boucher, chairman of the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, said: "The year 2004 will be a momentous one for Savernake Hospital.

"It is a very exciting and important occasion for which a lot of people have put in a lot of hard work over the years."

Mr Spray was delighted. He said: "This is a day I have been looking forward to but which I was never certain would happen."