I feel obliged to respond to the letter from Emily Brothers (Your Say, April 23).

My letter to which Miss Brothers referred was both written and published before the plans for a super hospital were leaked.

Sutton Council are proposing to use the part of the Sutton Hospital site, which they recently purchased, for the Greenshaw Education Trust to build a free school.

This school will be one of the largest secondary schools in the borough built on one of the smallest plots of land, so small that there will be no sports field nor other areas for recreation and there will be no staff car parking.

The Epsom and St Helier University Trust is proposing to build its 800-bed super hospital on the remainder of the site which they still own.

Ten years ago, there were plans to build a super St Helier Hospital on the site.

The Sutton Hospital Action Group, to which I belong, vociferously fought the proposals then.

All the arguments, both for and against, are the same now as then, although the site available for the hospital is much smaller as they have divested themselves of much of their land to Cancer Research UK and Sutton Council.

Therefore, they will have to build upwards rather than the maximum two or three storeys which they proposed at that time.

The road structure in the area, basically Brighton Road, Chiltern Road and Cotswold Road, jams up every morning and evening.

Imposing a school there will make matters worse, adding a large hospital will probably leave Brighton Road solid with traffic all day, whatever is done to “improve” the junction at that spot.

My group wants to maintain the character of this pleasant residential area which both Sutton Council and the hospital trust appear to be hell bent on destroying.

ALAN TRICKEY
Chilton Road Sutton