IMPROVEMENTS to the main entrance and front staff car park at Wycombe Hospital, due to begin shortly, will cost £440,000 not the £300,000 first estimated.

The job is a complicated one and some of the six firms asked to put in bids did not bother when they saw the scale of the problem.

John Newton, South Bucks Trust's head of strategic development, said there was no point in going out to tender again. The job had to be done in the summer when there were fewer staff about.

It would not cost any less and a whole year would be wasted.

Mr Newton said the 40-year-old Wycombe Hospital was showing its age. Money had been targeted at patient care, not hospital structure and maintenance was needed.

When complete, the car park will be for patients and visitors, not staff. There will be six fewer spaces.