A petition against planned closures of birthing centres in east Kent has been officially presented to health bosses.

More than 450 signatures were collected from Gazette and Faversham News readers over six weeks, opposing measures to drastically overhaul maternity services.

Since June, our Save Our Baby Unit campaign has highlighted the growing opposition to proposals to close birthing centres at both the Kent & Canterbury Hospital and Buckland Hospital in Dover.

The preferred option put forward by the NHS would be to stop births at Canterbury and Dover, but retain midwife-led antenatal care, day clinics and postnatal support. A new midwife-led service would be opened at the QEQM Hospital in Margate while capacity would be increased at a similar unit at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

The move would force Canterbury mothers-to-be into long journeys to hospital and mean Kent’s only city would disappear from birth certificates.

The three-month public maternity consultation, led by NHS Kent and Medway and East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, began last Friday and runs until January 20.

A series of public meetings across east Kent will be held during November and December for people to put their questions directly to the team behind the consultation.

On Wednesday, reporter Adam Williams formally presented the petition to Sara Warner and Hannah Price, from NHS Kent and Medway’s Citizen Engagement team.

The document also included copies of all Save Our Baby Unit articles, letters and Facebook posts published since June.

Sara Warner said: “We would like to thank the Gazette and Faversham News for presenting us with this document.

“All the feedback we receive during the public consultation on the three options for the future of maternity services will be analysed by an independent research team at Greenwich University.

“A report will then be sent to the joint Maternity Review Group, which will examine all evidence before making a decision.

"We would urge anyone with an interest in this issue to read the consultation document, come along to one of our roadshows to find out more, and tell us what they think by completing our survey.”