It could not be more simple: Huddersfield has to keep its A&E unit.

It needs to safeguard the thousands of children, pensioners, students and ordinary folk who one day may urgently need help from the Royal Infirmary .

So the Examiner today throws its weight behind the campaign to prevent our A&E coverage being switched to Calderdale.

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We will do all we can to support those individuals and those groups who have petitioned to save the unit.

Sign the petition to prevent the closure of Huddersfield A&E here

And we will use our influence to increase the pressure on the health chiefs who today proposed these sweeping changes at an emotive meeting in Birchencliffe.

Granted, they face difficult decisions regarding hospital provision but one thing is clear: Huddersfield is a growing town with a need for first-class health services.

And those decisions should not be based on the need to tackle debt problems brought about by a private finance deal negotiated in Halifax and signed more than 20 years ago.

It was a deal done to bring a new hospital to Halifax but it is a deal that is clearly unfair and unworkable.

It is wrong for the people of Huddersfield to be asked to bail out a debt that was nothing to do with the town.

When the two health trusts merged, there should have been clear guidelines over how the debt was managed.

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is OUR hospital in OUR town. If it is to be replaced, then it should be replaced with something better, not something cheaper.