BUILDING work on Colne’s long-awaited new health centre is nearing completion.

NHS bosses said the multi-million pound facility in Craddock Road was ‘progressing well’ and services will start moving into the building next month.

The £4.2million centre has hit several stumbling blocks since the NHS aquired the former Kwik Save supermarket site in 2008, with the plans shelved in 2010 due to funding concerns.

But the project was kick-started in 2012 and will now include four GP surgeries, speech and language therapists and a podiatry service.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said: “I have been delighted to see the rapid progress on the new Colne Health Centre.

“This multi-million pound project is a real boost for local patients and is a long overdue investment.

“Colne town centre is doing really well at the moment with a raft of new shops and the new health centre will be a fantastic addition.”

About 150 staff are set to move into the building, which will also include a pharmacy and outpatient facilities.

Andy Pratt, project director for NHS Property Services, said: “Building work on the new health centre in Colne is progressing well. Services should start moving into the building in early February and it will be open to the public soon after that.”

Richmond Hill Practice, The Horsefield Practice and Colne Family Doctors, which are all based in the old, soon-to-be-vacated, health centre in Market Street, will move to the new facility.

Last year health minister Earl Howe confirmed the Market Street venue would be declared ‘surplus to requirements’, meaning it will be advertised on the government’s own property website, and made available to public sector parties, before being marketed commercially.