Newly submitted plans for a £3 million pound residential care home in Keswick could create around 50 new social care jobs in the North West, reports the Times and Star.

The new care home has been proposed by the Manor Care Home Group, who wish to build the development on the former site of the Castlehead House Hotel, demolished last year following a fire. The site was bought by one of the group's members, Robert Pattison, from the former owner some six weeks ago.

According to Pattison - who operates seven existing care homes in the North East - the home could be operational and open to the public within 10 months of planning permission being granted. It will provide residential and dementia care, and employ at least 15 full-time staff and 35-40 part time workers in residential support worker jobs and nursing care.

Mr Pattison says that the impetus for opening the home in Keswick was an article he read two years ago, which said the county needed some 30 new care homes for the elderly. He told the Times and Star that he hopes the application for planning permission will be supported with some "encouragement from people in Keswick to say to the planners this is something that Keswick needs."

If approved, the new care home development will be called Keswick Care Home and operated under a new company, Castlehead View Limited.