AS much as I support your Save Our Maternity Unit campaign I cannot but feel that the service provided for my hometown of Calne leaves us as very much the poor relations yet again.

Proposals for the future of maternity units in Devizes and Malmesbury are to be announced shortly. The fact that they, together with Trowbridge and Chippenham, have maternity units at all is something that we in Calne have never had the luxury of, nor are likely to, despite our rapidly increasing population.

In fact, the maternity service in Calne has quietly been reduced recently, such that a unilateral decision seems to have been made by the powers that be in Chippenham, resulting in the removal of the two weekly afternoon clinic sessions held at my local surgery and replaced with one weekly session of just one and a half hours at the local community health centre for all of Calne's population. The alternative is for women to travel to the maternity unit at Chippenham, which can mean at least a two bus journey for those without their own transport. This is totally inconvenient and with Calne having some of the most deprived areas in North Wiltshire is totally unacceptable.

Why, yet again, are none of our elected councillors sticking up for the ordinary people of Calne? Perhaps this issue doesn't carry the same personal publicity value as a skate park or sports facilities. It's time our councillors got their hands dirty and did some real work.

E BISER

Ernie Road

Calne