DOCTORS looking to relocate their surgery in a Rossendale village have given up their search.

It now looks likely that the GPs based at Stacksteads surgery will move to a new health centre which will open at Irwell Mill in Bacup in 2005.

Plans to move the surgery from Farholme Lane, Stacksteads, to the ambulance station in nearby Commercial Street have twice been rejected by Rossendale Council after residents complained about the impact of increased traffic and representations were made by the police and county council.

The result of an appeal against the first refusal of planning permission is not going to be known before a June 6 deadline the surgery set.

The surgery was given permission to relocate at a board meeting of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust.

PCT chief executive David Peat said: "The practice has made it clear that if no suitable site could be found within Stacksteads and planning permission obtained by the beginning of June 2003, they would wish to move into the new health centre being planned for Bacup.

"This deadline is to ensure that the practice does not miss out on the detailed planning of the new health centre which has a provisional completion date of April 2005."

The practice said it had looked at least 11 other sites in Stacksteads but none of them were suitable for a modern health centre.