Over the years, it has become apparent that they go there to either try to scare each other or prove how brave they are. Even late at night, I see groups of youngsters heading up the road to the buildings.

I have been in the old hospital myself on a number of occasions, mostly out of curiosity. I had not been there for a couple of years until one day last week while out walking, I chanced to go up Hendon Road. I took the opportunity to take a short cut through the hospital from its western entrance. I walked along the corridor of the main block to where a series of stairs takes you down to the lower levels and the Halton Road exit. While descending, I happened to look at the lift entrance on one of the floors and noticed that the doors were no longer closed.

A closer look showed me that there was an uninterrupted fall down the lift shaft through four stories without so much as a piece of wood to bar the way. In the event that someone were to walk up (or down) the stairwell and take a wrong turn to the next level, they could easily end up falling down the lift shaft. On checking other levels, it was apparent that most of the lift doors were wide open.

As the parent of four very adventurous young children, I am prompted to ask why nobody has thought to make this extremely dangerous situation safe. Surely, it would not take much to fit plywood boards across the open lift shafts. Perhaps, the entire building should be blocked up at the entrances to stop people entering at all.

Ian Johnson