Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott is demanding to know why the council wasn’t consulted over the summer closure of Trowbridge’s birthing centre.

Last week Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said from July 15, no babies will be born at Trowbridge Birthing Centre until at least the end of September.

During this time the trust, which oversees seven maternity units, will be sending Trowbridge-based midwives to cover at other centres which are understaffed.

Cllr Scott said during Tuesday’s full council meeting at The Corn Exchange, in Devizes, that the trust hadn’t given notice of their decision before announcing it.

She said: “We were aware of staffing pressures but we were not engaged in a decision to select Trowbridge. Personally, I do not understand how you can just close down your systems.

“The units that are open need to be safe and if by keeping them all open that couldn’t be guaranteed, then this decision was necessary.

“I will not be letting this lie.”

Cllr Scott will be meeting representatives from the trust in around two weeks to discuss the decision.

Postnatal and antenatal care will still be provided at Trowbridge Birthing Centre during the summer, but women due to give birth at the unit have been told they will have to have their babies at Chippenham.

Paula Grenney, 33, of Lower Westwood, had her second baby William at the Trowbridge centre on Sunday, after planning to give birth at the Royal United Hospital, Bath.

Her husband James, 32, said: “There was some confusion when I rang Bath so we ended up at Trowbridge and the care they offered my wife was superb. The midwives there are incredible and it is a real shame that people won’t be able to go to Trowbridge.”

Midwife Sally Carr, of Kingfisher Drive, Bowerhill, retired from her job at the Trowbridge unit in March and believes that the unit will re-open fully, despite fears it may not.

She said: “It will have been a shock for staff but we all hope the promise of it re-opening happens.”