THERE was high emotion as the gates of a North-East maternity hospital closed for the final time last night.

The last two new mothers at Guisborough Maternity Unit left in the early afternoon, leaving a small team of midwives to prepare for the closure.

The move came after chief executive of South Tees NHS Trust Bill Murray answered a series of questions tabled by The Northern Echo on behalf of protesting mothers-to-be.

Closing the unit at 5pm yesterday represented a failure for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, which had demanded a moratorium.

The NHS Trust said it wishes to reopen the unit if more midwives can be found.

Jane Smith, midwife unit manager, said it had been an emotional day and one member of her staff of seven midwives and seven auxiliaries had asked to leave.

She said: "It is very sad, although, of course, the safety of new mothers and babies has to come first.

"We've had members of the public and former patients ringing up with their support which has been lovely.

"It's amazing the affection this place is held in. We just hope that adverts to attract more staff means we can re-open."

Chief executive Mr Murray said: "The Trust has every intention to re-open the unit but we could not delay the decision to temporarily close it any longer for clinical safety reasons.

"We cannot give a date for when the unit will re-open as it is heavily based on our success in recruiting enough midwives."