A proposed new facilities building at Hinchingbrooke Hospital will play a key part in the redevelopment of the site.

The health trust which runs the hospital has just submitted an outline planning application for a three storey estates and facilities building, together with a rooftop plant enclosure, service yard and road link, to Huntingdonshire District Council.

A number of redevelopment plans already under way at the hospital, which opened in 1983, including a new operating theatre block costing £27 million.

Hinchingbrooke was also one of a series of hospitals built using a lightweight concrete which is beginning to fail, needing major repairs or replacement.

The planning application said the new building would create a services wing in accordance with a site-wide development control scheme put forward in 2019-20.

"The replacement of this facility in a central part of the site is a key part of the delivery of the aspirations for renewal of the hospital estate," it said.

"The timing of this development will unlock other sites for redevelopment and ensure that essential deliveries, stores and supplies can be managed while other elements of the hospital estate are redeveloped in years to come."

Documents submitted with the application said the new building was considered to be a "standalone" facility to support the current hospital facilities and to allow for future development within a new hospital.

It would provide 3,900 sq m of floorspace over three floors, including stores, workshops, loading and delivery bays at ground level and two floors of offices for trusts administrative staff above.

The Trust said it intended to appoint a development partner to deliver the building and wanted to reserve final details until an agreement to develop the building had been reached.

The site for the new building is already connected to the hospital's road network but a new road may also be built to allow a one-way route for delivery and service vehicles to better serve the site.

This would require the creation of a new stretch of roadway extending to the north of the proposed site and is still at the feasibility stage with ecological survey work needed to support the option yet to be completed.