DETAILED plans have been revealed for a £3.7m care home for the elderly on a riverside site on the outskirts of Darlington.

The 67- bed care home is being built on the corner of Lakeside and Hammond Drive, near Darlington's South Park, on the old site of Skerne House, which was demolished nearly a year ago. The company behind the development, The Prestige Group, owns a number of residential care homes in the Tees Valley area, but will hand over running of the Darlington home to an operator on a 30-year lease when it is completed in the spring.

The care home will be U-shaped and will be predominantly on two storeys, with a small three-storey element as its south-western corner, where the architect makes use of a change in ground level. The building will have raised floors to negate the risk of flooding from the River Skerne.

Prestige Group owner, Teessideborn businessman Raj Singh, 43, has built seven care homes since 1994, providing homes for more than 350 elderly people.

He said: "The new care home is situated on land which slopes down towards the river and will have open countryside on two sides, giving its eventual residents a very pleasant outlook.

"It will also provide very high standards of comfort, being one of the first care homes to have en suites that include showers with wall seats, in every room."

Mr Singh, whose company also runs a hotel and a portfolio of investment properties, is also buying a 34-bedroom home in Chichester, West Sussex, which will be taken over by the same operator.

Skerne House had previously been converted into four selfcontained flats and in 2005 Darlington Borough Council gave planning permission for it to be demolished and 18 self-contained flats built in its place, but this development never came to fruition.

For further information contact Mr Singh on 07885 227582.