Up to 70 full and part-time jobs will be created by a £3 million nursing home on the site of the former Clifton Hospital in York.

The 60-bed private home for older people at Clifton Park off Shipton Road has been given the green light by City of York Council planners - and gained a warm welcome from a local business chief.

Construction work on the new development, to be known as Springfield Court Nursing Home, will start almost immediately, with demolition of the old hospital buildings due to begin next week.

The development, on a one-acre site, should be ready to welcome its first patients by October this year.

Health care company Esprit Fort will hold interviews during the summer for the jobs, including managers and trained nurses, plus administration, catering and domestic staff.

Its managing director, Stephen Leathley, said: "There is demand for a high quality, purpose built nursing facility within York's outer ring road.

"Suitable sites within a historic city like York are extremely scarce and the acquisition of this site is the culmination of almost two years of intensive work.

"We are delighted that we can now proceed with the scheme, which will be of significant benefit to the area, both in terms of the provision of high quality services to older people and in the creation of jobs."

The home is the latest in a range of new uses for Clifton Park, including major office developments, a restaurant-inn, a hotel and new housing.

Springfield Court's features will include 60 single rooms with en suite facilities, a variety of lounge and dining rooms, a residents' bar, library and a hairdressing salon.

There will also be a reminiscence room, which is decorated in the style of a previous era to help elderly residents recall events and memories. Mr Leathley said they intended designing a lounge based on 1953, the year of the Coronation, which produced plenty of memorabilia, and when people now aged 70 to 90 were in their prime.

The chief executive of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, Roland Harris, said: "Any additional jobs in the York-North Yorkshire economy are welcomed.

"This underlies the growing diversity of the York and North Yorkshire economy and the greater the number of new jobs created in different fields the stronger that economy becomes."

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