The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is the preferred site for accident and emergency services serving Shropshire and Mid Wales, it was announced last night.

A meeting of NHS Clinical commissioners last night approved the Future Fit 'preferred option', which was to have emergency care based at Shrewsbury while Telford's Princess Royal Hospital will become a 'planned care' site, bringing to an end nearly six years of consultations on the proposals.

The controversial move to downgrade accident and emergency services at Telford was greeted as 'good news for Mid Wales' by Powys based politicians but was met at the meeting with cries of 'shame on you' from protestors, while Telford and Wrekin Council say they are going to ask the government to step in to halt the process.

However the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust(SaTH) say the move means the new emergency centre will be safer and provide better results for patients, and that by having a separate planned care site, patients will wait less time for their appointments and operations would be less likely to be cancelled due to emergency admissions.

Simon Wright, Chief Executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), said: “We are delighted that a decision on the future of our hospitals has been made and that we can now get on with the work of planning and creating two new, state-of-the-art hospitals to provide the best care for the whole population of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

"The decision means we can begin to shape the future for all of our services, which will help us to attract more staff, improve facilities for our people and develop healthcare that will benefit everyone."

Angry Telford and Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies called the move a 'crazy decision' which he said he would recommend be referred to the secretary of state to be reversed.

Under the plans the Women and Children’s Centre which opened a brand new centre in Telford four years ago at a cost of £28 million will also have to close as it is required to be located at the same site as the county's A&E.

"This crazy decision must be stopped. Over many years we have asked various Health Secretaries to step in and they have refused to do so. By referring it to the Secretary of State for Health in this legal way it would force the issue onto his desk and he will have to intervene.

"The Government can no longer shirk its responsibilities by saying it’s a local decision. The Government would be writing the cheque for the loan to pay for the downgrade of Telford’s A&E department and the closure of its consultant led Women and Children’s Centre."