IN his letter concerning the rebuilding of Airedale General Hospital, Cllr Andy Brown reasonably expresses scepticism about Government delivering on promises made regarding a marginal constituency when the next general election is only some 12 months off (Scheme is far from being delivered, Craven Herald, December 7).

Whilst the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust website states, ". . . the government has committed to rebuilding by 2030", Cllr Brown's remarks put me in mind of a favourite quote from 'Timon of Athens' by William Shakespeare in which The Painter, one of several people patroned by Timon, cynically says to The Poet, similarly patroned by Timon, "To promise is most courtly and fashionable. Performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgement that makes it."

Richard Sykes

Skipton