St. John Ambulance is planning to rent out its Dunrossil House offices in Point Finger Road and build a new headquarters in the vacant land behind it.

The volunteer organisation is hoping doctors or dentists will want to let out Dunrossil House because of its close proximity to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

And the charity, which has 55 volunteers and runs four ambulances, is hoping the business community will dig deep to help pay for the new two-storey headquarter building.

St. John Ambulance volunteers regularly help out at around 325 sports and social events and they are confident the corporate world will help out with the cost of constructing the new building.

Anthony Goodfellow, the chairman of the St. John Council, which runs the charity on the Island, said yesterday: "There are a lot of medical practices at Point Finger Road and with it being in such close proximity to the hospital, it would be ideal to develop as offices.

"This would also make us more self-sufficient in terms of operational costs and the donations could be used for other initiatives.

"We would be looking to the banks to assist with initial financing and then for major donors to provide the end product."

The charity has not yet drawn up plans or sought planning permission, but Mr. Goodfellow said the building itself could take one year to 18 months to complete.

St. John executive director Jacqueline Browne said: "We are the only volunteer first aid and emergency transport service in the community and we attend so many social and sporting events.

"We would hope our significance at these events has been noted because a number of them cannot run unless we are present."