AN ambitious scheme to create a village community to provide care and support for adults with special needs is taking big steps forward.

The Pendragon Community Trust is hoping to raise £450,000 to establish community-style residential care base at an edge-of-town location somewhere in North Yorkshire.

The people behind the scheme are predicting a bright future for it after finally securing charity status, after more than 15 months of work preparing a bid to the Charity Commission.

A voluntary administrator, Geoff Millward, has also been appointed to oversee the day-to-day running of the charity.

Possible locations for the village being considered include Bedale, Ripon, Northallerton, Harrogate, Leyburn and Thirsk. Property in the village will be able to accommodate up to eight adults and four residential co-worker staff at any one time.

Whichever site is chosen will also need to have space for potential further development and extra buildings. Gardens and grounds for recreational and therapeutic use will be essential to the decision on where to locate.

The trust's chairman, Bedale businessman David Kerfoot, said the fund's total currently stood at about £14,000 - but he is confident that the new charity status will unlock extra cash.

Bids to various grant-making organisations, including the National Lottery, are expected to be made over the next year.

Mr Kerfoot said: "We are in a much stronger position than we were 12 months ago. There are a lot of people we can now approach who have previously said we had to have charity status. We are just waiting to get the next £20,000 or £30,000, which we would hope to get sooner rather than later and then we can start looking at land. We have said it would be about £450,000 and a new draft of the business plan has kept the figure at that."