SIR — I totally agree with Bryan Leaker (Free Press March 9) regarding the lack of a proper sign indicating the exact site of the new Minehead hospital and spoke to West Somerset Council and Somerset County Council on the issue when the hospital was first opened.

I am aware that the county council is against too many signs going up along our roadsides and that is to be applauded, but this is a hospital we are talking about, and people need to know of its existence.

The red H sign on Seaward Way is quite inadequate to indicate its location.

I cannot ever recall a hospital without a proper sign directly outside the facility, and the very fact that this hospital lis so far back from the main road on a flat landscape is all the more reason to have a roadside sign.

During the summer months of 2011 when the grass and weeds were so overgrown and the building could barely be seen from the road, a visitor to Minehead said they thought it was the entrance to a recycling centre.

Goodness knows what it will like like this summer when financial cuts begin to bite and the grass verges in front of this hospital are reduced to being cut to just three times a year!

Even when the Duke of Gloucester was due to open the building it was debatable if the 20 yards either side of the road entrance could be cut because of it not being under the same ownership as the rest of the verge along Seaward Way.

So much for any kerbside appeal for our hospital when even its surroundings cannot be maintained.

Recently, while waiting in the hospital with a friend, I had a little walk around and quite by chance spotted something that could easily be missed by visitors to the hospital, and even now I'm not sure how many people will have seen this amazing structure (pictured) or even know who paid for it.

But if money from the NHS budget was spent on this decoration I can well understand the public not being too pleased.

Whoever owns the land alongside the hospital, why can't someone put some common sense into the matter, and allow a proper sign? Didn't Minehead Hospital win a top design award? If it did, then let's have some pride in this important facility to our community - it could be years before the adjoining land is sold off and developed.

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