HEALTH campaigners are baffled by what they claim is a price tag change for Ravenscraig Hospital.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS is to dispose of the huge site, off Inverkip Road, as mental health services in Inverclyde are restructured.

At a public meeting in Greenock last week, activists grilled a panel of experts set up to scrutinise the health board"s plans - and heard references made to the �8 million the sale would generate.

But former Inverclyde Provost Ciano Rebecchi told the Tele: 'I was very surprised at the �8m figure.

'They were previously quoting �15m. Now the value is eight.

'Are they telling us it will take �7m to clear the site? I can"t see any way the cost of clearing it would come to that.' Councillor Rebecchi is adamant he and fellow protesters were told by Neil Campbell - chief executive of the old Argyll and Clyde health board - the land would generate �7m more than the amount discussed during last week"s talks.

He said: 'That first figure was given to us at a meeting by Mr Campbell. Why have we gone from �15 million to �8 million?

'You could get an awful lot of houses on what is a very large area at Ravenscraig.

'If a developer goes in there, I think they would make a fortune.' But in a statement yesterday, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the site had never been subject to a market valuation.

A spokesman for the board said: 'The Ravenscraig Hospital site has never been commercially valued by either NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde or by NHS Argyll and Clyde.

'There has never, therefore, been any re-sale value ever attached to the site - either of �15m or of �8m.'