A NEW 80-bed care home is to be built on the site of the former Chantry Infant School by the group which has taken over the county’s residential homes.

The new home for older people will also offer day care clubs and activities for older people who live independently in the wider community.

Permission for the home to be built by Care UK was granted by the borough’s planning and development committee.

The new care home will accommodate 80 residents and will provide nursing as well as residential care.

Chris Hopkinson, regional operations director of Care UK, said: “We are very pleased to get the go-ahead to develop our first new care home and wellbeing centre in Ipswich. It is the first in a carefully co-ordinated and phased investment programme which will help meet the increasing demand for modern older people’s care including specialist dementia services.”

Care UK’s construction partner for the new build will be Castleoak, a company that works exclusively in the care sector.

The planning approval for the new care home in Aster Road is the first successful application in what will be a £60million investment programme by Care UK in ten new care homes and ten wellbeing centres in the county between now and 2016.

Care UK took over responsibility for Suffolk County Council’s existing 16 residential care homes and eight wellbeing centres in December, welcoming more than 500 residents.

Residents of the nearby home at Hawthorn Drive will have be given the option of moving into the new home, which is scheduled to open in June 2014 and after which the current home will close.

Angel Court in Hadleigh will also close when Aster Road opens – and residents of that site will have the opportunity to move to the new home.

n Are the new homes better than the council homes they replace? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail starletters@archant.co.uk