Bury's two MPs and council bosses met North West health chief Mike Farrah vowed to continue the fight against the closure of Fairfield Hospital's maternity department and special care unit.

They formally rejected the Making it Better decision and vowed to continue the campaign to keep maternity services at Fairfield.

MPs David Chaytor and Ivan Lewis were joined by leader of Bury Council, Councillor Wayne Campbell, Conservative Councillor Yvonne Creswell and Liberal Democrat Councillor Wilf Davison in a meeting with the chief executive of NHS North West along with Heywood and Middleton MP Jim Dobbin.

The showdown followed last month's vote to axe Fairfield's maternity department in a bid to improve services by centralising staff.

The decision means that, within the next five years, mums to be in Bury will have to travel to North Manchester General or Royal Bolton hospitals unless they opt for a home birth.

Coun Campbell said: "We accept that, in general terms, this Greater Manchester review provides improvements to services, but they have ignored the important Bury provision which is needed to serve the needs of local mums."

The three MPs and Bury Council have vowed to fight the decision and saw the meeting with Mr Farrah, who will ultimately oversee the implementation of the changes, as the first step by formally rejecting the healthcare shake-up and arguing why Bury, Rochdale and Rossendale residents should have services at Fairfield.

Mr Chaytor said: "Our first point was, in the consultation, there was a massive pro-Fairfield response, with Bury having the largest number of letters submitted, the second highest number of petitions and the second highest of responses on the standard response form. I do not think NHS North West can ignore the public strength of feeling from Bury.

"Our second point is that as the consultation has gone on, the case for Bury has got stronger in terms of safety, equity and feasibility which was reflected by introducing the Fairfield option six months ago.

"We are not opposing the principle of the reorganisation, just the geographical locations of services."

Mr Farrah said: "This was a very constructive meeting and the issues were discussed honestly and openly by all sides.

"I was impressed with the strength of feeling and I hope this meeting marks the start of an ongoing discussion as any changes at Fairfield unfold."

Mr Chaytor and Mr Dobbin will be meeting with the acting chief executive of Pennine Acute Trust, Bob Chadwick, tomorrow to discuss the implementation of the decision.

The trust announced last month it would be spending up to £1m expanding services at Fairfield to accommodate mothers from Rochdale Infirmary - which is expected to lose its services first - as the trust cuts the maternity services from four hospitals to two.