THE SULLY asylum seekers row has also prompted an angry war of words between two leading health experts.

Cardiff Patients Council co-ordinator John Evans and Sully Health Facility Campaign Robin Williams are locked in a fierce debate.

Only this week, Mr Evans has hit out at what he describes as Mr Williams' 'latest attack' Mr Williams had written a letter to the newspaper stating his reasoning behind a call to re-open the Grade II listed building for mental health services.

He said: "Obviously, the Sully Health Campaign group are of the old school that feel mental health patients are an embarrassment that should be hidden away in institutions.

"Community Mental Health services are an essential part of treatment and can be improved and extended to cater fully for the health needs of the vast majority of patients. And this is the right wanted by most of the patients we represent."

Mr Evans says that battling for a premises that was never designed for mental health purposes is a waste of effort.

He argues that with proper community help, patients with mental health issues can be kept away from hospital wards altogether.

But this needs money, and as he says, budgets are finite.

He said: "If Robin Williams' and his group spent their time fighting for increased funding for Mental Health Services, it would be far more use.

"And as for attacking the decision to refurbish Whitchurch Hospital, those comments seem to be born of spite and frustration."

Mr Evans does not even think the location of Sully Hospital was right for patients, let alone the building itself.

He added: "Rehabilitation needs to take place at locations within the community, not in buildings located outside small towns, next to a chemical factory and just down the road from the civic amenities site.

"Perhaps these campaigners have a subconscious desire to dump our patients a little bit further down that road?"