Hospital approved for Ascot green belt site

Frimley Health NHS trust has been given approval to build a £90M hospital on green belt land in Ascot.

At a recent meeting, local councillors gave permission for Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot to be demolished and relocated to nearby woodland.

Having previously been refused, the NHS trust said it was optimising the best use of its land.

“If you are going to recover from surgery, there is nothing better than looking at a woodland environment for your recuperation,” said Sir Andrew Morris, Chief Executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Sir Andrew added the trust would “generate cash” from the development of the existing hospital into housing.

The building of the new hospital, which will be used for planned procedures and feature six operating theatres and 70 beds, is expected to start early in 2018 and completed in 2020.