I READ that Richmond MP and Foreign Secretary William Hague is leading the protest against the threatened closure of the pediatric department at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton (Echo, Feb 21).

He knows damn well what is going to happen.

Is this going to be the second major mistake this Government is making in Northallerton?

The first big mistake was to close the prison even though it was recently voted one of the best in the UK.

I realise David Cameron’s statement that money was no object referred to flooding, but surely why make the people of Northallerton have to seek hospital help 20 miles away while at the same time we are paying GPs up to £3,000 per shift to work in A&E departments?

JM Gowland, Heighington.