Campaigners from across Cumbria have united to call for controversial health decisions to be halted.

Members of the Cumbria Health Scrutiny Committee - which has the ability to "call in" matters they feel are not in the best interests of local people - are today being urged to use those powers and refer the matter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The We Need West Cumberland Hospital had already written a letter to members of the committee, made up of county and district councillors, ahead of its meeting in Carlisle today.

Now they have been joined by the Cumbria Health Campaigns Together group, Alston Moor Labour Branch, and retired paediatrician Mike Downham.

It follows unpopular decisions by NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to downgrade paediatrics at Whitehaven and centralise stroke services in Carlisle.

They also approved centralising consultant-led maternity, although have first given the Whitehaven service a 12-month reprieve to see if recruitment issues can be addressed, and the removal of community hospital beds from Wigton, Alston and Maryport - though again with a condition that alternatives will first be explored.

But many campaigners do not feel the caveats go far enough, nor do the decisions properly take into account the overwhelming opposition.

Earlier this week there were calls for members of the CCG governing body to resign. But its chief executive Stephen Childs insisted that, while they recognise some groups were disappointed, members had made decisions - based on public feedback and clinical evidence - that were "in the best interests of the communities of west, north and east Cumbria".

However many campaigners disagree. In her letter to the scrutiny committee on behalf of Cumbria Health Campaigns Together, Helen Davison said: "We strongly feel that the options agreed upon are a downgrading of services. At the very least they will reduce access to good health care for people particularly in west Cumbria and the rural areas served by the cottage hospitals, and at worst will result in both increased morbidity and mortality."

Dr Downham added: "It is unacceptable to experiment with a new service which carries high risk for babies, foetuses and expectant mothers.

"This isn’t scaremongering – the increased risk of transfer is obvious to paediatricians, obstetricians, GPs and patients."

The Alston Moor Labour Group argued that their community will be left at a clear disadvantage due to being so remote, regularly snowed in and having virtually no public transport. In a message to scrutiny members, they wrote: "We call on you as our representatives, with the interests of the communities of Cumbria in your hands, to refuse to endorse the catastrophic decision made by the CCG on March 8."