A MINEHEAD businessman worried by the lack of signs to Minehead's new hospital has spent £200 to provide one of his own.

Hotelier Bryan Leaker commissioned a 40-foot banner pointing the way to the hospital and put it up on district council-owned land outside the £25.5 facility on Wednesday morning.

He said he fully expected it to be removed as it did not have planning permission and was likely to be branded a safety hazard by highways chiefs - but he was adamant it was money well spent.

"I am more than happy to do this for my community at my own expense," he said.

"What's the biggest risk - looking at a sign and having a crash, or not being able to find the hospital and dying?"

Mr Leaker, a former district councillor and resort director at the town's Butlins holiday resort, has long been a critic of the lack of signs outside the hospital and earlier this year accused NHS Somerset of putting people's lives at risk if they were unable to find the new facility.

"Health chiefs are blaming the district council, but I've been told the district council has told them they can have a sign on adjoining land, but after 15 months, still no sign.

"It is simply appalling that they cannot find a sign that enables people to locate essential medical services.

"If I can save one life, or help visitors to access the hospital to make use of its excellent services, it is money well spent."

The only signs to the hospital are small directional ones, but a spokesman for NHS Somerset told the Free Press that the day before Mr Leaker's banner appeared, it had ordered its own larger directional sign for Seaward Way.

However, there was still no word on whether new signs for the hospital itself would ever be put up.

The NHS does not own any of the land outside the hospital, alongside the highway - one side belongs to West Somerset Council and the other to Somerset County Council.

The district council claims its side needs to remain clear to allow access to a drainage ditch, while the other is deemed to be a visibility splay by the county authority so must remain free of obstructions.

The NHS Somerset spokesman said: "NHS Somerset is aware of Mr Leaker's concern that patients or the public may not be able to find the new hospital or that those with minor injury might be placed at risk from not being able to locate the hospital in a medical emergency.

"This has not been our experience to date."

He said doctors always advised anyone with life-threatening medical conditions to dial 999 for an ambulance rather than attend a community hospital, and that last year 13,785 people were treated at Minehead Hospital's minor injury unit, while hundreds more had attended its outpatient clinics.

He said NHS Somerset had been in discussion with highways chiefs "for some months" to find a way forward.

"NHS Somerset can confirm that only yesterday (Tuesday) it had commissioned a larger directional sign which will replace an existing sign along Seaward Way.

"This will include a red 'H' symbol and the words 'Community Hospital'.

"To meet approval, such signs have to comply with the highway department's national standards and they must be placed in an approved location offering best visibility for car drivers and pedestrians coming from both directions towards the hospital."

Photo: Steve Guscott