SCORES of people who packed into Marlborough Town Hall on Monday were given a glimmer of hope that Savernake Hospital may once again have a maternity unit.

The 200-strong audience was assured that the proposed new hospital at Savernake, which is due for completion by the autumn next year, would have room for expansion. Although the current plans do not include a maternity unit, there was an underlying hope that one could eventually be included.

The public meeting had been called by Marlborough Mayor Margaret Boulton to let health chiefs see the strength of feeling in the Marlborough and Pewsey area for keeping Savernake as a working hospital.

Hospital project manager Peter Williams said it was hoped that a start on the £9.8 million rebuilding scheme would be made this summer for completion by autumn 2004.

The meeting heard the future of the hospital would depend to some extent on how much money can be raised from the sale of spare land for housing.

Mr Williams said it was hoped the sale of land for 38 homes would raise more than £3 million towards the rebuild costs. The remainder will have to be found from a mortgage by Chiltern Securities, the trust's prefered private finance initiative partner.

Marlborough mother-of-two Eleanor Christmas expressed concern about the availability of maternity services if Devizes Hospital closes.

The Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust has hinted that both Devizes and Malmesbury hospitals might have to close as part of plans to cut its £10 million deficit.

It is thought Savernake and the community hospital in Chippenham will remain open and act as satellites to Swindon's Great Western and Bath's Royal United hospitals respectively.

Mrs Christmas, chairman of the Marlborough branch of the National Childbirth Trust, said she noticed the plans for the new hospital at Marlborough include a caf and shop but she asked: "Where is the maternity unit?"

Mrs Christmas said the threatened closure of Devizes Hospital and its maternity unit was very worrying.

Care trust chief executive Barbara Smith had been unable to give any assurance over where mums could go to have their babies in future, Mrs Christmas said. "Women (from Marlborough) are prepared to travel 14 miles to Devizes to have midwife-led care or 12 miles to Swindon for consultancy care," she added.

"If they are taking this midwife led care away from Devizes where is it going to go?"

In response, but without directly answering Mrs Christmas's question, Mrs Smith replied that the existing maternity services at Chippenham, Devizes and Malmesbury hospitals were national exemplars.

Some of the presently available services, said Mrs Smith without naming them, were poorly used. She told Mrs Christmas: "We have heard what you have said and we will be taking that into account."

However in her opening remarks to the meeting, Mrs Smith said it was accepted that in some areas, including Marlborough, midwife-led maternity services were not available locally and added: "We want to make this available across the whole of the trust area."

She said discussions about the future of all services were continuing. "Some areas like maternity services we need to do more work on."

The real glimmer of hope that Savernake's maternity unit, which closed in the mid-1908s, might be restored eventually was given by Peter Williams.

He said it was proposed to build a steel framed building at the side of the existing grade II-listed hospital.

This type of building, said Mr Williams, meant that at it could be adapted internally at any time. He added: "If we need to add to it, it will not be that difficult and there is some space left on the site for future growth."