BUILDING work on Nelson's new state-of-the-art health centre is nearing completion.

Health bosses hope to be given the keys to the £6.5million Yarnspinners Health Centre on April 4 and will move staff into the building during April and May.

The Grade II listed former Yarnspinners Wharf Warehouse on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, near Morrison's supermarket, has been transformed to offer doctors' services, dentistry and minor surgery for 30,000 residents.

Health bosses in Pendle hope the new centre will help to tackle the number of cases of cancer, heart disease and mental health problems in the town, which are above the national average.

But residents and councillors have raised concerns about inadequate parking at the site.

Jon Heyes, chairman of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust, which runs health services outside hospitals, said: "It will be virtually a one-stop shop for the health needs of Nelson folk.

"We are pleased that the Primary Care Trust has been a prime mover in bringing this super facility to Pendle.

"We and our partners want to offer a modern community care service and facilities suitable for the 21st century. The fact that we are able to do so in a way that celebrates Nelson's great industrial past, by putting new life into such an important heritage building, makes it all the more exciting and worthwhile.

"The facilities will allow us even more scope to tackle the health problems which have caused concern to the people of Nelson for so long. We are only too aware that the area has suffered worse than national average figures in cancer, coronary heart disease and mental health.

"It is our duty to help and we have many pro-active initiatives designed to alleviate and hopefully conquer such problems. Soon we will have additional support with better health centre facilities and provision."

Yarnspinners Health Centre will replace the Leeds Road Health Centre and health bosses have been working on the project for a number of years. English Heritage has been involved in the conversion of the former warehouse which belongs to British Waterways.