THE auction of the land in Launceston could have gone ahead without the community realising, were it not for a keen eyed resident.

Mrs Evelyn Sandercock, who lives in St Stephens by Launceston Rural Parish, spotted an advert in the Western Morning News of Saturday, October 14, of ‘290 UK properties for sale by auction’, including the land to the north of the Link Road.

Mrs Sandercock believes other people in the area would have seen the advert, but has been described as a ‘heroine’ by one of her local parish councillors.

Mrs Sandercock said she ‘couldn’t believe it’ when she saw the advert in print. She said: “My husband was here, he had read the paper and I said did you see this, and he said he didn’t notice it. It wasn’t in the big sale section, it was just a little piece in the main paper, just at the bottom of the page.”

She immediately contacted one of her local parish councillors, Joan Heaton, whom she had met at a recent meeting about Launceston Hospital.

Mrs Sandercock added: “She had been to Truro a week before with some people from the NHS, she said there was no mention made of this land, I don’t think anyone knows anything about it.

“It just sort of went from there. She notified everybody she thought would have an inerest in it. Joan acted very quickly and very professionally.

“I’ve lived here for over 50 years, I’m a Lanson person, I went to school at Pendruccombe. Launceston Hospital have always helped me and my family. We support the League of Friends.

“I have great admiration for all the NHS have done for me and my family over the years.”

Cllr Heaton said: “Mrs Evelyn Sandercock is a heroine. She spotted the auction of our hospital land.

“We have been given assurances that this plot of land will be withdrawn from auction this week. We have also been told that this particular plot of land does not carry the restrictive medical covenant. Therefore, if the above is true ... it is indeed possible that houses could be built on this site adding to the traffic congestion at the entrance/egress of our medical facilities and further adding to the 18,000+ patient list at our GP practice. Let’s hope our politicians from parish to Westminster are pulling out all the stops to keep this Launceston land for Launceston people.”