Bracknell Forest Councillors are urging the government to deliver a new Frimley Park Hospital after it announced the programme it is part of will go 'under review'.

A motion by Councillor Phillip Thompson set to be voted on at an upcoming council meeting ‘expresses concern’ about the fate of Frimley Park in Surrey.

It is the closest hospital for residents to use in Bracknell, which remains the only borough in Berkshire without its own acute or community hospital.

Frimley Park was built with two thirds of crumbling concrete in the 1970s. It secured funding in May 2023 to be relocated under the former conservative government’s New Hospitals Plan.

But progress was put at risk when Labour announced they would review the plan to address a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in government finances.

Now, Bracknell councillors are urging the government to ensure the new hospital will be delivered, claiming that demand is ‘huge’.

The fate of nearby Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, also used by people in Bracknell, is at risk due to the review.

The motion says that the council supports statements made by both hospitals that ‘pending clarification of what the government’s review will entail, they will continue to progress at pace with their redevelopment plans’.

They further noted that the population of the borough has almost doubled since Frimley Park Hospital was first built, with ‘further increases expected’ due to higher housing targets placed on the town.

Bracknell Forest Council recently established a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee with authorities in Hampshire and Surrey to ‘scrutinise the relocation of Frimley Park Hospital’.

An update on the progress made will be given at another meeting, the Health and Wellbeing Board, a day before the full council meeting.

The MP for Bracknell, Peter Swallow, has also promised to ‘lobby hard’ for the delivery of the hospital.

Following the announcement of the government in July, Mr Swallow said he would be meeting the Department for Heath as well as hospital bosses.

He also criticised the former conservative government for ‘false promises’ over the new hospitals plan, which set out to deliver 40 new sites across the country by 2030.

The MP said that the review will ‘set out a costed plan with a realistic timeline’.

Bracknell Forest Council’s motion will be debated and voted on Wednesday, September 11. If passed, the leader of the council Mary Temperton will write to the Health Secretary over the council’s concerns over the impact on residents.