We need another major hospital

In addition, cyclist priority routes could be introduced on some roads with temporary cycle racks provided in a central location with free refreshments for those with bicycles.

Such an approach would show people what is possible and could lead to a change that will improve the quality of life for everyone in the city. Ida Linfield, Andrew Palmer and Mike Sole Canterbury Liberal Democrat campaigners, c/o Dane John, Canterbury

I fully support this idea. Your subheadline suggests that this would be a 24-hour shut-down of the city, yet at no point in the proposal was 24 hours suggested.

Furthermore, it is envisaged that this would involve closing some roads, not the whole of Canterbury.

I was present at the Canterbury Area Member Panel meeting at the Guildhall when this proposal was unanimously supported by councillors.

They agreed in principle, but there is much work to be put in on the detail including the date, the time-scale and the precise locations. Roy Taylor St Augustines Road, Canterbury

I think it would be an excellent idea to consider a car-free day.

The council can easily organise a trial at little inconvenience to the public by committing themselves to car and taxi-free travel to and from council meetings while they plan it. Harry Macdonald Churchill Road, Canterbury Yet again, we are told the Kent and Canterbury hospital is ‘Distressing And Degrading...with Staff At Breaking Point’ (Gazette, January 12).

Patients across east Kent, from Thanet and Ashford as well as Canterbury, are waiting many hours for accident and emergency treatment.

What is different this time is there does not seem to be even any pretence there are special circumstances such as a major epidemic.

There is no getting away from the basic facts.

Health expenditure in England is grossly inadequate to meet current needs, let alone extra demands because of the ageing and expanding population.

In Canterbury and east Kent, matters are made even worse by plans for new housing for commuters and seemingly endless expansion of the universities, unaccompanied by relevant jobs.

The solutions to our hospital needs require not just money but the provision of real resources.

Specifically, we need an additional major hospital in Canterbury, built with additional money, to train the doctors and other health care professionals that we need. Frederic Stansfield St Augustine’s Park, Ramsgate

Problems at Kent and Canterbury Hospital have prompted some of correspondents to suggest another hospital in east Kent would make a difference