PLANS to build a new health centre on council land in Malvern have moved a step closer after the council has announced it is almost ready to move off the site.

Malvern Hills District Council has identified a potential site, which hasn't yet been publicised, to move its activities from the four-and-a-half-acre Pickersleigh Road depot site, used for storage of skips and refuse trucks.

Negotiations are under way and once it has moved, South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust will be able to move on and begin developing the new health centre on two acres of land there.

The council is also considering its options for the remainder of the four-and-a-half-acre site, including building a new community facility on it or selling it for housing.

The PCT has indicated it wants to sign a contract with the council for the land by the end of the financial year and submit a planning application by January 2004.

"It's really exciting times for the residents of Malvern because potentially they are getting a brand-new community hospital and a 21st Century health centre," said district council leader Tom Wells.

"It does create a problem for us because we have to look at other places to have our activities but we are looking at relocating the depot activities."

A survey is currently being carried out on the site to identify any risk of contamination as it was formerly a gasworks.

Earlier this year, the district council offered to sell two acres of land on Pickersleigh Road to the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust to build a new health centre.

The land has been offered on the condition the PCT builds a new community hospital in Seaford Court.

The new 30-bed facility would replace the existing 12-bed hospital in Lansdowne Crescent, while the new health centre would include two doctors' surgeries relocated from Malvern Health Centre and Townsend Way.