Leeds health bosses can have no doubt about the strength of feeling people in Otley have about Wharfedale Hospital. Many at Monday's meeting were almost moved to tears as they spoke of what they saw as the steady loss of services at the hospital.

Many recalled the old hospital and how even housed in wooden huts it had been better than its state of the art replacement. It may have been tatty, but there were more services and doctors were still able to refer patients to it.

Angry residents refused to accept explanations of improvements in services leading to fewer older people being referred to the hospital and many recalled personal experiences of friends and relatives who had been desperate to have their operations or convalesce at Otley.

The meeting, which threatened to exceed the Civic Centre's numbers on fire safety, heard an apology on behalf of the trust for the closure before Christmas of one of two of the elderly persons' wards. There can have been few present who believed that apology would have been made if the closure had not been exposed by this newspaper.

Get the wheels of change rolling

It is often said the wheels of government move slowly - but when lives are at stake it is surely time they started to speed up. On the second anniversary of the death of the RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant David Stead it is shocking to reflect that safety measures which were called for five years ago have still not been put in place.

Flt Lt Stead and nine fellow servicemen died in Iraq when their Hercules was shot down. Bullets pierced the fuel tank which exploded and caused the plane to crash.

A full three years before his death the Government had been told by the RAF that explosion suppressant foam was needed in the Hercules fleet. But even now only a tiny fraction of the work has been done.

Surely if men such at David Stead are willing to put their lives on the line the very least we can do is make sure they have the right equipment and the necessary protection.