A 100-strong audience unanimously rejected cutting services at Withybush Hospital, at the second Designed to Deliver consultation meeting, held in Crymych.

All those present called for the retention and development of services at Withybush, echoing the wishes of more than 300 locals who attended the first meeting in Fishguard.

Members of the audience highlighted the potential problems for mothers facing difficult pregnancies having to travel out of the county for delivery.

One member of the audience warned women in the St Davids area not to get pregnant or else the long journey to Carmarthen could prove fatal if facing a difficult birth.

They were instead in favour of building on the excellence of the current maternity unit in Withybush.

Leader of Pembrokeshire County Council John Davies, who lives in Cilgerran, said that spending £51million at Glanwili would mean that the Carmarthen hospital would become the epicentre of the health service in west Wales.

He said: "The internal politics between various bodies means it is us, the people, who suffer, particularly the 10,000 of us who live in the north east of the county.

"Bureaucracy should be done away with and more money and facilities given to GPs to get on with their work. And while new technology is developed the medical foundations currently available at Withybush hospital should be built upon."

The next LHB promotion of the Designed to Deliver document will be in St Davids tonight (Wednesday) at 7pm in Ysgol Dewi Sant.