The campaign to save a hospital's accident and emergency department from closure has been backed by the council.

Councillors declared their support for the Save King George Hospital A&E campaign at Redbridge’s full council meeting on Thursday March 17.

A petition with 1,750 signatures was presented to the council asking hospital management to reopen 32 acute beds closed across Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) last year, and to stop the closure of King George A&E in Goodmayes.

The part of petition asking the council to write to the Government about the A&E closure was not addressed by councillors.

When asked by 90-year-old Hilda Edgar what the council was doing to support the campaign, Redbridge Council leader Councillor Jas Athwal said: “We are very supportive of the campaign to save the A&E and we have made that very clear by having the campaign's first public meeting here in Redbridge Town Hall.

“As a resident of the area for 45 years, I have had to use that hospital and know what it’s like to have a child suffering from asthma say to me ‘I can’t breathe Dad’.

“So I know we have to save the A&E, and have written to the Secretary of State to tell him again that the conditions at the time of the decision to close the A&E have changed.”

The Redbridge Conservatives also declared their support for the campaign.

Leader of the Conservative group Councillor Paul Canal said: “There are major challenges facing both of our hospitals.

“But there are a lot of people going to A&E when they should be going to urgent care centres, so we need to support the doctors and nurses there to do the best they can for patients."

Head of the campaign MP for Ilford North Wes Streeting thanked all those who signed the petition and welcomed the it being referred to the council’s health scrutiny committee to be discussed at its next meeting on April 18.

BHRUT has been contacted for comment.