Plans to revamp Watford General Hospital have been welcomed by the town’s Labour Party despite it lamenting a “nine year delay” in progressing the project.

Following a recently-released strategic outline case document, the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust board approved two possible options to improve facilities at the Vicarage Road site.

A decision is yet to be made between redeveloping the existing hospital and building an entirely new facility on the current site.

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However in a statement the Watford Labour Party criticised repeated delays to the project, highlighting a previous plan to redevelop the hospital which was approved by central Government in 2008 but put on hold three years later pending a review of hospital rebuilding schemes.

The suspension on rebuilding projects was lifted in 2012 but by then plans to rebuild Watford General had been shelved.

Mike Jackson, chair of Watford Labour Party, said: “We are saddened by the nine years that have been lost; the new hospital should have been completed two years ago but this is now water under the bridge.

“The situation is now critical with crumbling buildings and a backlog of maintenance at Watford General.

“We must get behind the trust and ensure there is no further delay in redevelopment so that the half a million people living in West Herts have a world class hospital here in Watford.”

Katie Fisher, chief executive of the NHS trust, said: “Past delays with securing finance, changes in local leadership, NHS funding priorities being in flux and the need to consider other options have led to where we are today. We have a strong case for investment and so hope that all of the communities we serve will unite behind our plans.

“We understand that local people have waited a long time to see a major redevelopment of Watford General Hospital. Whilst some of our buildings are old, we have used some of the newer parts of this site to create improved facilities for our patients.

“In terms of moving ahead with a wholescale redevelopment - which will either be a completely new hospital on the Watford site or at least 50 per cent new build - we need to develop full architectural designs and secure outline planning permission for the shortlisted options.

“There are also procurement procedures set by Government due to the size of the sums involved. We’ll work through these as quickly as we can to secure the money and get started. In the meantime we have an investment programme to ensure that we keep our whole estate in as good a condition as possible.”