PLANS to demolish New Bradley Hall in Kingswinford and build a brand new state-of-the-art care home for the elderly have been approved.

Dudley Council's development control committee has given the thumbs up to proposals to bulldoze the existing home in Compton Drive, which is said to be in need of major investment, and build a three-storey, 66-bedroom replacement facility next to it.

Black Country Housing Group has submitted the plans after taking over the running of the facility from Dudley Council in February 2015 after a long campaign by members of the community to safeguard its future after it was initially threatened with closure.

The housing group will meet all the costs of the new home which will be a contemporary, purpose-built complex offering single-room accommodation with ensuite facilities, communal space and landscaped grounds for elderly care home patients and dementia sufferers.

A report to the committee, which met on January 18 at Dudley Council House, said: "Residents of the existing care home complex of New Bradley Hall would be decanted into the new build to enable demolition of the existing care home complex (including the two-storey domestic property at the rear of the site).

"The site of the former care home would then be used as hard landscaping and for car parking."