LETTERS continue to show a deepening interest in the future of the site of the Cardigan Memorial Hospital when the present owners have vacated.

The latest ideas range from the care of the dying to providing for the younger generation.

As I see it, there are two main challenges which will have to be met.

First, the present owners Hywel Dda Health Trust, who have the legal right to dispose of the property, need to look back and see how they came into possession of it by taking over from the then owners, the people of Cardigan, at no cost.

They need to admit to a moral obligation to return it to the people who donated money to provide the site in the first instance.

The second challenge will be to the local residents to decide how it will be used, by whom it will be controlled, how will it be funded.

There is some merit in the suggestion that the present League of Friends would be a suitable body to assume ownership but speaking as a member of that organisation, we would need a new charter to enable us to have the power to take on such responsibility.

The people of the district have a chance to show that we can be the equal of our ancestors, who financed and ran the original enterprise after the the First World War.

If we want this sort of community service it is up to us to put it into place. No one else will.

Harold Bellamy

Rhoshill

Cardigan

SA43 2 TT.