Sir, – Faceless bureaucrats in London are now telling us all that there is a massive funding crisis in the NHS and a big hole in the NHS budget.

Has any one else noticed but the amount of money they are talking about seems to be around about a quarter of the amount of money this government want to spend on the new high speed railway from London to Birmingham? The answer to the problem is obvious therefore isn't it? Don't build the new HS2 railway.

Scale the project back to what it was originally, the less ambitious relaying of some old track Brunel built which was ripped up by Dr Beeching in the 1960s.

Wouldn't that solve our NHS budget crisis and increase capacity on the railways too? How about adding carriages to trains and lengthening a few platforms? Isn't that a cheaper way of increasing capacity? Then we solve our NHS budget crisis and the men in Whitehall no longer have the excuse they want to implement their programme of removing services from our local general hospitals.

Here we are just before a general election facing massive changes to our local NHS services and suddenly there is an NHS budget crisis. The men in Whitehall are trying to carry the day with their argument for these new cuts in local services. It is their trump card.

They argue we have to cut services because we can't afford them. Well let's make some cuts elsewhere instead. Who do they think they are kidding?

NIGEL F BODDY

Fife Road, Darlington.