AN unofficial sign pointing the way to Minehead's community hospital was finally removed this week after NHS chiefs put up a new one of their own.

After months of criticism about the lack of signs outside Minehead's £25.5 million community facility, a new official sign has been put by hospital bosses on the grass verge opposite the entrance.

However, the sign is somewhat smaller than the 40ft banner put up by Minehead hotelier Bryan Leaker in May.

As previously reported in the Free Press, concerned by the lack of signs at the hospital, Mr Leaker spent £200 of his own money on a directional banner in Seaward Way.

He claimed lives could be lost if people were unable to find the new hospital and was adamant the banner was money well spent, even if it was eventually removed.

This week his banner was taken down by local planning enforcement officers as it had been put up without planning permission and without authorisation on land owned by West Somerset Council.

The situation had been exacerbated by the appearance of another large banner alongside Mr Leaker's, advertising a pub 16 miles away on Exmoor.

A spokesman for NHS Somerset said the health service had not been involved in the removal of the banners but confirmed a new official sign was now in place.

"The new and enlarged highway sign was installed on the grass verge, opposite the entrance to Minehead Community Hospital last week," he said.

The issue of signs has dogged the hospital site since it opened as 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.

But neither has been able to help with the issue of signs - 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 and, again, must remain free of obstructions.

Mr Leaker, who is a former district councillor and resort director at the town's Butlins holiday resort, has long been a vocal critic of the lack of signs outside the hospital and the small directional signs elsewhere in the town.

He said despite the new hospital being open for over a year, there were still signs in Wellington Square pointing the way to the old hospital site, while GPS systems also took drivers to the wrong location.

But NHS Somerset said anyone with life-threatening medical conditions should always dial 999 for an ambulance rather than attend a community hospital, while the hospital's minor injury unit had treated 13,785 people last year.