BACUP is leading the way in future health care according to a top Government minister who visited Rossendale yesterday.

Health Minister John Hutton was in Bacup to welcome news that work has officially started on the valley's state-of-the-art health centre.

He visited the Rochdale Road site -the first LIFT project outside London to get under way - to celebrate the £19.3million investment in Bacup, Darwen and Nelson.

Burnley Pendle and Rossendale, Blackburn with Darwen and Ribble Valley Primary Care Trusts signed a 20-year agreement with the Bamber-Bridge based Eric Wright Group to build three new 'super health centres'.

The MP was joined by David Peat, chief executive of Burnley Pendle and Rossendale PCT; developer Michael Collier, who is director of the Eric Wright Group; Gillian Bishop, Rossendale Borough Council's deputy chief executive, and council leader, Graham Pearson.

During his tour of the site, Mr Hutton said: "Bacup is leading the way for everyone else to follow. We have 42 across England at the moment, which is an exciting time for the NHS in this part of Lancashire.

"Around 90 per cent of our patients are treated in primary care and don't go into hospital at all, so what we do is vital.

"The doctors can't do what they want unless they get the relevant equipment and facilities which will make a huge difference to the health of Rossendale people.

"The facility will enable GPs to work together to improve health quality and provide some of the best facilities in the world."

Bacup's four-storey building will house three GP practices, a dental suite, a pharmacy and other health services on the site of the partly demolished Irwell Mill.

Mr Collier said work started on Monday after the agreement was signed the previous Friday in a bid to ensure the facility will be open to patients by Easter 2005. Mr Peat, who also welcomed the Health Minister yesterday, added: "The project will see the regeneration of a 19th Century mill with the help from English Heritage."

The LIFT project - a private and public sector link-up between developers and health agencies - will provide new, modern health facilities that bring services up to the standards required by the NHS.