STAFF at Malton Hospital and mums-to-be in Ryedale will have to wait until June for a decision on the future of its maternity unit.

Members of the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust were told at their meeting at Bridlington yesterday that the reason was the vast amount of response to its public consultation, which included the Gazette & Herald's 2,000-signature Birth Right petition and representations from the public, parish councils and other organisations.

Acting chief executive Iain McInnes said the Trust was still "working its way" through the volume of responses and the Government's new report on maternity services published just hours before the meeting.

Mr McInnes said the Government report had been due to be published last week.

"We need to consider it before making a decision on the maternity units at Whitby, Malton and Bridlington, " he said.

Suzanne Carr, a board member, said that while the delay was regrettable it was vital that a decision was made on the Malton unit "within the national network" otherwise the Trust could be wasting resources. "It is to the benefit of the public that we get this right, " she added.

County Coun Jane Kenyon said: "This decision must be taken in public and with transparency."

Mr McInnes said the Trust would be holding talks with the North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust before making its decision, which would be "at the end of June at the latest".

He said the key drivers for the Trust on the future of maternity services were ensuring safer births, ensuring fully informed choice, reducing neonatal complications and having a swift transfer to a consultant-led service.

The Healthcare Commission is to carry out an audit of all NHS maternity services in late spring, the board was told. "The trust remains concerned at the low frequency of births in Malton, Whitby and Bridlington - approximately one a week - and the high percentage of those mothers and babies who need urgent transfer during their delivery - one in five, " said Mr McInnes.

Under the Government's proposals, women in England are to be given a choice of where they give birth. From 2009, expectant mothers will be able to choose whether they go to hospital, a midwife-led unit or stay at home.

They will also be guaranteed a named midwife to care for them throughout their pregnancy.

But the Royal College of Midwives said more cash was needed to fulfil the promises. Dame Katlene Davis of the RCM said she supported the plan, but added: "We are obviously concerned that there will need to be enough midwives to make it happen."

She said there were currently 19,000 midwives working in the NHS but the RCM said another 3,000 were needed over the next five years to fulfil the promises.

The closure of Malton Hospital's maternity unit would fly in the teeth of the Government's belief in a woman's right to choose where to give birth, according to Helen Ashton, a North Yorkshire ante-natal teacher and member of the National Childbirth Trust.

She said the Government was absolutely right to be offering women greater choice over where and how to give birth.

Closure of Malton's maternity unit would be "against Government policy, against Department of Health policy and against all the evidence about what women wanted, " she said.

Howard Keal, a Ryedale councillor and leading campaigner against the closure of the unit, added that keeping it open would be much more in keeping with the Government's emphasis on choice than allowing it to close.

There were times when a major hospital such as in York or Scarborough was the best place for a woman to give birth, Coun Keal said - especially if there was a risk of complications.

But in more straightforward cases, a small, local midwife-led unit like Malton could offer more personal, intimate care. "Ryedale is a very rural area, " he said. "We need access locally to services so that mums are not forced to risk giving birth in the back of an ambulance on the A64 in summer traffic."