IT was deplorable that a town the size of Redditch had to send maternity cases to Bromsgrove, said Councillor E Harris, speaking at the meeting of the Public Health Committee of Redditch Urban District Council last week.

Earlier in the meeting, Dr W Drawneek, Medical Officer of Health, presented a report that showed of 236 Redditch births which occurred between August 1958 and January this year, 140 had taken place in hospitals – 129 at Bromsgrove General Hospital and 11 at Avonside Hospital, Evesham.

Councillor H G Bayliss said he wondered whether other towns the size of Redditch which were near places the size of Birmingham were treated in the same way.