PLANS to set up a hospice to care for terminally ill people in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area took a major step forward last night.Yare Hospice Care revealed it was in the final stage of negotiations to purchase a site for a 10-bed hospice to allow people to die in dignity surrounded by their loved ones.

PLANS to set up a hospice to care for terminally ill people in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area took a major step forward last night.

Yare Hospice Care revealed it was in the final stage of negotiations to purchase a site for a 10-bed hospice to allow people to die in dignity surrounded by their loved ones.

Though the charity would not disclose the exact location, it is understood the Margaret Chadd Hospice will be built south of Gorleston near to the A12.

Once it is built the £3m hospice, named after the Southold health campaigner, will be the only one of its kind in the region.

Yare Hospice Care was formed because Yarmouth and Waveney does not have one hospice bed - despite government targets saying there should be at least 21.

The complex negotiations for the hospice site involve Norfolk county and Yarmouth borough councils and NHS Yarmouth and Waveney.

As well as being close to finalising the site plans, Yare Hospice Care has also said it hopes to set up charity shops in Lowestoft, Beccles, Bungay and Halesworth to help generate £250,000 a year to meet the building's running costs.

It is hoped the hospice could be operational by the end of 2010.

David Nettleship, of Yare Hospice Care, said: “I can say we have been offered a site by a landowner and we are confident things will proceed.

“We are all very pleased and excited with how things are going. We are now in discussion with council plan-ners about a planning application.”

Mr Nettleship said the vast majority of funding needed for the building of the hospice would come from charity and NHS grants.

Although he said little money had been raised so far by Yare Hospice Care, he was sure people in Yarmouth and Waveney would begin to support the cause in earnest once the hospice was built and the charity shops sprang up.

Yare Hospice Care has one charity shop open in Gorleston High Street and another is due to open this month in King Street, Yarmouth.

On Wednesday, a conference involving seven East Anglian Hospices and Yare Hospice Care will be held at Somerleyton Hall. The conference has been organised by Margaret Chadd to help hospices share information and discuss any problems they face in fundraising.