PENDLESIDE Hospice has submitted plans to build two extensions, including a smoking room for patients, as part of a bid to secure a slice of £60m government funding.

The hospice on Colne Road, Reedley, wants to add a two-storey extension to the east of the current building and a single-storey extension to the north.

The current building, which has ten bedrooms, provides care for in-patients and day therapy along with out patients and a base for health visitors.

A new two-storey area would provide a linen store and smoking room for patients at ground floor level and increase the visitor accommodation on the first floor.

The single-storey extension is intended to store wheelchairs which are loaned out to patients in the wider community.

The planned new areas amount to an increase of 66 square metres in internal floor space.

Chief executive of Pendleside Hospice, Brian Hardup, said that the extended facilities were needed but there was no guarantee that they would be built soon.

He said: “Hundreds of organisations such as Pendleside are putting bids together to claim some of a £60m central government grant that is being made available for capital projects.

“One of the requirements needed to even put forward an application for a grant is that planning permission is already in place, so that is why we are going through this process.

“If the permission is granted then we will know whether the extension can go ahead next March when it’s announced who has been successful with their bids.”

Mr Hardup added that a smoking room was included as hospices are exempt from the indoor smoking ban legislation and that they currently provide an indoor area for patients.