The president of Mannin Cancers has described his ‘frustration’ over a delay in the charity’s plans for a cancer centre at Noble’s Hospital.

David Gawne said that ‘circumstances outside of the charity’s control are holding things up’.

It comes after both the Minister for Health and Social Care and Treasury Minister were questioned on the matter in the House of Keys last week. The centre would provide support to both patients and their carers, as well as offering the island’s first psycho oncology centre.

The plans would see the new centre located at the entrance of Noble’s Hospital, but as this is government land, and the lease agreement would last 99 years, the government needs to undertake a land disposal process which takes ‘significant work’.

That’s according to Lawrie Hooper, Health and Social Care Minister, who said in the House of Keys: ‘The DHSC and Manx Care have been actively trying to engage with the charity, unfortunately not all of the information has been forthcoming in a timely manner.’

But Mr Gawne said: ‘We have responded quickly to every request we have got, on a number of occasions we have offered to do a complete presentation to the department which wasn’t taken up and we’ve asked to meet the Minister, but again that wasn’t taken up.

‘It’s no lack of action on our part which is holding things up.’

‘We are appreciative of the department for enabling us to have this piece of land but our disappointment and frustration is the length of time it has taken to get his order completed.

He said that the hope is that work will start at sometime this month which would be preparation work for the land such as the felling of trees. He added: ‘There are some trees on the site which have to be felled anyway whether we do this or not, but because of legislation protecting the nesting season of birds and bats, if we don’t get that done by late January we won’t be able to do anything until August next year.

‘That is one of our key reasons why we are pushing to get this done now.’

The current cost of the project is £2 million, which the charity has already raised.

Mr Gawne said: ‘We have negotiated a fixed price contract, so we won’t be in a situation where we are hit because the price of steel or other materials increases. We are very fortunate at the moment that the builders are holding that price but if we get much more of a delay, then there will inevitably be a proportionate increase in costs.’

Should the costs increase, Mr Gawne said that the charity would be able to meet them.

The charity is hoping that the centre will be operational in mid-2025.