CAMPAIGNERS fighting to maintain the now defunct Watlington Hospital as a medical facility are delighted after being approved as priority buyers for the site.

Members of Watlington Hospital Recovery Fund (WHRF) were told the news last Friday after a meeting of the Oxfordshire Community Health NHS Trust which owns the site.

Charles Farrell, founder member of the recovery fund and a former board member of the Oxfordshire Health Authority said: 'We are delighted with the progress we have made and the great support we have received.'

Mr Farrell and other fund members are proposing that the site is used to provide local facilities, both private and NHS funded, including a nursing home and a day centre. And current plans are allowing for at least 30-bed spaces.

But the recovery fund must now wait two to three weeks for the site to be valued before a formal decision to purchase can be made. A fundraising campaign must also be launched to ensure that enough money is raised before March 2001 when contracts are due to be signed.

Simon Lowe, chief executive for the Oxfordshire Community Health Trust, described the recovery fund's proposals as exciting but added: 'The next step is for the application to be considered at the south east regional office of the NHS for final approval. We are very pleased to be able to support the application and to work with the recovery fund.'

More than 400 representations were sent to planners earlier this month to protest against an application by the community health trust to build homes on the Hill Road site. The hospital closed in February after a long battle by anti-closure campaigners and interventions from the MP for the area, Michael Heseltine. The recovery fund took over the campaign after the closure.