FORMAL consultation over plans to axe cherished mental health care facilities at Thornbury hospital is now underway - but residents and community leaders are still waiting to be asked for their views.

Dark clouds have been hanging over Grace ward - a special unit for the elderly mentally infirm - since last August when NHS officials revealed plans to close the unit and transfer patients to Blackberry Hill Hospital in Fishponds.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust says that closing the 14-bed ward would help it meet a £2.8million budget deficit. But it claims the move to Blackberry Hill would also lead to better patient care.

Community leaders - and thousands of Thornbury district residents who have signed a Save Grace ward petition - take a different view, however and are pledged to fight the closure plan.

They say patients and relatives will lose out because of Blackberry Hill's inaccessibility and woefully inadequate public transport.

Consultation on the planned closure is set to continue until early April with a decision likely in May.

Deputy mayor Cllr Shirley Holloway told the town council on Tuesday that they were still waiting to hear whether the health partnership would be holding a public meeting in the town. "If and when a meeting is held we shall have to speak out very strongly against this plan," she said. "We are going to have to fight very hard."

Cllr Clive Parkinson said: "We should be asking them to come to a special meeting where we can put across our strong views on this subject. We need to talk face to face with someone from the Trust.

Trust spokesman Dominic Moody said the consultation period would run until April 11.

"There will certainly be a public meeting in Thornbury and this will be announced shortly when he have confirmed the date and venue," he said. "We shall also be talking to the council and other groups."

He said the trust was working together with South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust to provide the best possible service within the resources available. Their proposals aimed to make significant improvements in some areas whilst reducing costs.

Further information and copies of the consultation document are available from the project team on 0117 928 6627 or from www.awp.nhs.uk

The subject of Grace ward and its future can also be raised at a meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum - but it will mean travelling to the furthest reaches of Wiltshire.

An Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Forum is being held in Wilton near Salisbury on January 25 and people from Thornbury are welcome to attend and raise local concerns.

"It sounds like forum would be an appropriate platform to raise this sort of issue," said spokesman Luisa (CORR) Crook. "It's unfortunate that the next meeting will be so far from Thornbury but it's a vast area and we move the meetings around."

Set up by Parliament, the forums have statutory powers to enable members to monitor services commissioned or provided by Trusts. Forum members can also look at other health related issues that affect local communnites with their Trust catchment area.

The meeting will be held in Wilton Community Centre in West Street, Wilton from 12.30-2pm.