DARWEN residents will get years of good health services and a health centre which will still be in perfect condition in 2025.

That was the vow from Steven Hartley, chief executive of the East Lancashire Building Partnership, as he received an award for the town's new £7million health centre.

There was some criticism about the former health centre, in Union Street, as some residents believed it was left to become dilapidated over the years.

But Mr Hartley said no such thing would happen to the new building, in Police Street.

He told Darwen Civic Society: "It will be kept in tip-top condition, that I can guarantee."

Mr Hartley, whose headquarters is at Whitebirk, Blackburn, is currently involved in the building of several health centres throughout East Lancashire through a partnership arrangement between the public and private sectors.

He said the new centres were much larger and up to four times as big as the facilities they replaced.

More importantly, maintenance was "built into the deal".

The partnership is owned partly by the area's three Primary Care Trusts, the Government and the construction company Eric Wright Group.