THE future of the former Winsford Hospital building hangs in the balance with a decision possibly being made next Tuesday that could see it revert to the community.

Members of North Devon Healthcare Trust will be meeting in Barnstaple to consider bids for the grade two listed building.

Among the bids is one from Winsford Hospital Action Group in collaboration with Age Concern.

If the bid is successful, the Action Group would reconvene itself into a board of trustees to run the building as a community medical centre. A representative of Age Concern would be invited to join the board.

At the same time an appeal would be launched locally and nationally to raise funds to buy the building.

A further bid for the building has been submitted by the Landmark Trust which would also be prepared to collaborate with the Winsford Hospital Action Group.

The Action Group was formed initially to prevent closure of the 15-bed community hospital.

Despite campaigners' strenuous endeavours and the backing of the community and West Devon an Torridge MP John Burnett, the hospital was closed by North and East Devon Health Authority at the end of August last year.

It was then put on the market by North Devon Healthcare Trust for a figure believed to be between £160,000 and £180,000.

Action Group chairman Sandra Willetts said this week that she was 'keeping her fingers crossed'.

She said: 'We want our hospital back although we realise we are not going to get it back in the same form as last year.

'We are collaborating with Age Concern's national fundraiser to try and do what people want.'

Mrs Willetts said the group would like to preserve the building for the community.

'And broadly speaking, operate it in a manner that, while not exactly mirroring the wishes of the lady who was the benefactor in the first place, will see it run for the benefit of the community,' she said.

'We would be looking to do something to generate income. We have talked to a chiropodist and chiropractor - they might wish to rent space in the building. There could be things like a day care centre, perhaps a lunch club.

'It's all hypothetical at the moment – we have got to secure the building first.'

Mrs Willetts said if the Landmark Trust bid was successful there would be collaboration but on a smaller scale.

MP John Burnett said he had held meetings with the health authority and healthcare trust board members.

He said: 'I have stressed to them and other members of the board how important it is that Winsford reverts to the community.

'It was given to the community before the war with a huge endowment. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and now they say, mistakenly, they do not need it.

'The case for returning it to the community is overwhelming and the Action Group has made an excellent bid. We hope to use it as a community medical facility.'

l The building was designed by architect Charles Voysey and bequeathed, with a large endowment, to local people by Louisa Webb-Medley in 1919.