A charity has offered to fund the building of a new £7 million hospice in Canterbury, it has been revealed.

The Tory Family Foundation will pay most of the money for the development, which would replace the current Pilgrims Hospice on a new site in the city.

The hospice would form part of a wider development subject to planning permission.

Pilgrims Hospices revealed the plans today, saying a new building on a different site in Canterbury is one of three options being considered for the hospice’s future.

The other two – to refurbish the current London Road building or redevelop on the same site – are considered less favourable.

If a new hospice is built, services in London Road would transfer to the new site when development is complete.

The current hospice would then be sold to offset the charity’s contribution to the construction costs.

Any cash left over would remain with Pilgrims Hospices, in accordance with charity legislation.

A proposed site for the new hospice is currently being evaluated, but remains commercially confidential while Pilgrims Hospices’ trustees decide whether to proceed.

But consultant Steve Carey who is working on the project with the trustees says the cost could be around £7 million.

One of the two other options being looked at is refurbishing the current site in a phased project lasting between three and 10 years, subject to fundraising.

Pilgrims Hospices bosses say such work would cause “severe inconvenience” to patients and staff and there would be periods when the hospice would have to shut.

They are equally as critical of a second option, which would involve building a new hospice on the current site.

Doing so, they say, would take two to three years and require the closure of the hospice for most of this time.

They add: “In addition to the need to relocate any patients resident at the start of the construction process, it would be difficult to redeploy all of the non-clinical staff within the organisation, risking the continuity of the existing highly skilled team.”

Meetings between the trustees, patients, staff and volunteers are now planned for the next couple of weeks to discuss the pros and cons of the various options available.

Pilgrims Hospices chief executive Cate Russell said: “Pilgrims is 100% committed to providing quality hospice care for people at a site in Canterbury.

“However, our current buildings at London Road cannot provide the levels of service and care that new hospices deliver and to which we aspire.

“In the medium term we will be faced with the need to either extensively refurbish or rebuild.

“Both options will be expensive and lead to major disruption to the care we provide while works are undertaken.

“The new offer, which is currently being evaluated, could provide the new facilities required with the minimum of disruption to patient care.”