OUTLINE planning permission has been granted to build a 50-bed care home.

Developers have been given approval for a five-storey care home on derelict land off Ushaw Villas, in Ushaw Moor, near Durham.

Cllr Jean Chaplow told Durham County Council’s area planning committee: “It is a care home which will allow local people to stay where they have lived for years which mean friends and family can visit them rather than have to get a bus to Durham or Brandon.

“It will also give employment to local people.”

Committee members were told that the site had become an overgrown eyesore over the last 10 years and councillors voted unanimously to approve the application.