There have been two letters recently about security on the Fairfield General Hospital site.

The hospital site is fully patrolled, including the car parks, and we have had several incidents recently where people causing problems have been detained and subsequently arrested by the police.

Neither of your recent correspondents logged a complaint with us. If people don't let us know there's a problem then we can't do much about their individual case.

More generally, we work very closely with the police, assist with prosecutions, and we also reserve the right to take civil action for recovery of compensation if anyone damages our property. We would likewise give all our backing to any individual who wanted to take such an action against anyone convicted of damaging their property.

Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the site, has invested in security, raising staffing levels substantially. Naturally, we don't want to go into detail, but we carry out a range of operations designed to protect our staff, patients and visitors, and their property. In part, this has been paid for by the car parking charges.

It is a particularly callous act to target the vehicles of people visiting their sick relatives at Fairfield, or indeed the staff who work here, serving the people of Bury. We would certainly hope that if anyone knows of anyone who is causing problems at Fairfield, or planning to do so, then they would use the anonymous Crimestoppers tip-off line 0800 555 111 or contact Greater Manchester Police direct on 0161 872 5050.

John Wilkes

Director of Facilities

Pennine Acute Trust