Access to Wycombe Hospital will be “maintained at all times” when work on the latest phase of the town centre masterplan gets underway this month, the county council has reassured residents.

While plans for phase five of the masterplan have just been revealed, work is set to get underway imminently on phases three and four in Queen Alexandra Road and Suffield Road.

The latest part of the masterplan, which aims to make the centre of High Wycombe safer and more attractive for shoppers, visitors and businesses, will see a new link road – set to be called Suffield Hill – built between Suffield Road and Lily’s Walk in a bid to “maintain slow and steady traffic flows” and will be delivered by developers, Inland Homes.

Phase four, which will be delivered by Bucks County Council, Wycombe District Council and Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership, will involve “public realm improvement works” on Queen Alexandra Road.

Contractors will be reconstructing the road from the new layout from Suffield Road to the bottom of Marlow Hill and a number of on-street parking bays will be removed starting from October 9.

Any cars parked in the bays after then will be slapped with a penalty charge notice.

While the roadworks are in place, ambulances will still have “priority access” to and from the hospital, the county council has confirmed.

A statement said: “The project team has been working in collaboration with Wycombe Hospital and Ambulance Service teams as well as our other key stakeholders to develop the traffic management plan to be used to construct the road. 

“Once we are on site our traffic management team will ensure that all emergency vehicles have priority access to and from the hospital where necessary, especially when we are carrying out works directly outside the hospital entrance.”

Drivers are being warned to expect “disruption and queuing” around the area while the work is going on, especially in peak times, from late October to late spring next year.

Rutland Street will be closed between Desborough Road and Wendover Street from this month until July 2018 and planned utility works will see Rutland Street junction with Suffield Road closed between October 9 and 22.

Queen Alexandra Road and Suffield Road will also be closed overnight to carry out final road surfacing in later spring but dates will be confirmed closer to the time.