by Angela Cole

Hundreds of people have signed petitions and letters calling for maternity services to stay in Maidstone.

The campaign, Full Maternity at Maidstone, was launched on Saturday, September 5, in Week Street, Maidstone, by Peter Carroll, the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and the Weald.

Mr Carroll, joined by fellow Lib Dem members, asked shoppers to sign a petition and letters to the health secretary Andy Burnham, calling on him to intervene against the decision by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to concentrate maternity services at the new Pembury Hospital from around 2011.

A midwifery-led birthing unit for non-complicated births, would be left in Maidstone.

Mr Carroll, who runs a Larkfield haulage firm, is no stranger to campaigns - he and actress Joanna Lumley lead the successful campaign to allow retired Gurkhas to stay in the UK.

Mr Carroll said: "It is a wrong decision and local people are against it.

"I have met an amazing cross section of people today.

"I want to send at least 10,000 letters to the health secretary to say to him that if there is any democracy in our health service, here’s a majority of women who don’t agree with this decision."

A further 20,000 letters are to be hand delivered to homes urging people to challenge the decision.