DEMANDS for an extension to the period of public consultation over the proposed closure of the in-patients facility at Ashburton and Buckfastleigh Hospital may have succeeded, writes Paul James.

Buckfastleigh town councillors were told at their Wednesday meeting that the deadline for comments about the controversial relocation of ten beds to Newton Abbot Hospital might be extended by nine days to February 24.

The good news was broken by Torbay Care Trust chiefs who were outlining their controversial shutdown proposals at a full meeting of the council, as they had done just 24 hours earlier to councillors in Ashburton.