A charity which cares for people with life-threatening neurological conditions is to move from its grade II listed building in favour of a new building where it can provide better care.

Bosses at Sue Ryder Care, Cuerden Hall, are planning a fundraising drive to pay for the new multi-million pound building.

Anne Marie Potter, manager of the centre in Shady Lane, Bamber Bridge, said the maintenance costs of the hall, which is set in 11 acres of parkland, have soared and the charity was having problems meeting capacity. "It is not worth investing in this building, in the long term it would be better to build a new one," she added.

She said a business case had already been approved by the national board of trustees and tenders were out to three companies to project manage the scheme.

She said the project would be carried out over the next three to five years, and the charity was looking to build a new home within a five-mile radius of the current site.

Although the capacity for the new home has not been agreed, Mrs Potter said, it would provide a home for more people than the current one, offering care for a wider range of conditions.

The charity is hosting a Lights of Love carol concert next month to remember previous patients at the home and others who cannot be around at Christmas.

Mrs Potter said the concert symbolised the transformation the home was about to embark on. "There's a lot of people who have called the hall home. We want it to be a service of remembrance but also looking towards the future," she said.

The hall, which has housed the charity since 1990, currently provides a home for 36 people living in ten shared bedrooms, and offers respite and day care for five people a day.

It provides specialist, long-term nursing care for people with life-threatening neurological conditions and illnesses such as Huntington's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and stroke.

The Lights of Love concert is on Monday, December 12 at St Saviour Church, Church Road, Bamber Bridge at 7.30pm.