PLANS to extend and improve a care home in York have been given the go-ahead - as part of what council chiefs have called a drive to provide high quality accommodation for older people.

City of York Council's planning committee agreed plans for the redevelopment work at Haxby Hall care home on Wednesday evening.

The work will be carried out by Yorkare Limited, which will also take over the management of the residents’ care, as well as the current staff team, from March 31 this year.

A council spokesperson said the extension work and transfer of the care home to Yorkare was in line with the authority's ‘Older People’s Accommodation Programme’ , which aims to deliver 900 units of high quality accommodation.

Councillor Carol Runciman, executive member for adult social care and health, said: “This is a significant step forward in our plans to give older residents wider and better accommodation choices.

“The excellent team at Yorkare is one of the UK’s top care home operators, and it’s great to be able to work with them on these plans to ensure more people can enjoy the best quality care at Haxby Hall. I’d like to thank everyone who has supported this scheme including the residents and families, and our fantastic staff team at Haxby Hall.”

When complete, Yorkare will be able to offer 65 en-suite bedrooms, 47 of which will be for residential care and 18 for people living with dementia.

There will be a new restaurant and bar, hairdressers, a home cinema and spaces for meeting friends and family and social events. The home will also offer landscaped gardens to residents, as well as terraces.

There were objections to the redevelopment work from neighbouring occupiers who were worried about loss of privacy, due to an increased number of windows and the position of terraces.

However, a planning meeting heard the scheme had been amended to relocate the second floor rear terrace, in order to address objections regarding privacy from neighbours. The meeting heard that the rear terrace had been relocated to the north west corner of the building, still at second floor level but with an outlook over the corner of the site.

Other objections received cited concerns that the rooms do not provide enough space. But the committee was told that the rooms exceeded the minimum Department of Health recommendation for floorspace, and were considered to be of adequate size.

Laurence Garton, development director of Yorkare Homes, said: “We are delighted that these plans have been approved and we will continue to work with neighbours of the site to keep them abreast of developments during construction.

“This is a fantastic home in a lovely place and we are looking forward to progressing work providing the highest level of care for the benefit of present and future generations of older residents.”