The planned location of a £6 million Carlisle care home has been revealed.

If it is given the go-ahead, the 60-resident home - featuring a shop, cafe and restaurant - will be on the site of the former Morton Park School at Burnrigg.

Plans have been put forward by Cumbria County Council, which is planning to close three homes in Carlisle as well as four others in Copeland as part of social care reforms.

The new facility, which will mirror that of the newly-opened Park View Gardens home in Barrow, will specialise in caring for residents with dementia and complex needs.

The authority said that staff at existing homes will transfer to the new premises, alongside residents.

Figures for August last year showed that Elizabeth Welsh House, in Harraby and Petteril House, in Old Harraby, had just under 50 per cent occupancy.

Langrigg, in Morton, had 72 per cent.

But there has been some opposition to the closures, with 1,300 signing a petition organised by the Carlisle Socialist Party.

It fears that reducing the total number of places will make it more difficult for those who need it to find a care home place, and to get respite care.

Cumbria County Council has set aside £12m in its budget to build the new homes, with the first residents moving into Park View Gardens last week.

A consultation regarding plans for the new home has already been held with residents, families and staff.

A council spokeswoman said: “The county council has committed to build a brand new care home in Carlisle which will allow us to provide high quality care and support for those people who have more complex care needs, such as physical frailty and dementia, in a modern, state of the art building.

“People have high expectations of what a care home should be. Our new care homes will meet those expectations and deliver high standards of care and most importantly will meet our customers needs.

“Our care homes are of course only one part of the county council’s ambitious plans to deliver the right care in the right place for older people. Developments such as this sit alongside our other plans and strategies which include the development of Extra Care housing.

"This also provides purpose built modern accommodation for those people who want to live independently and to have their own front door, but with the benefit of onsite care and support. All of this adds up to more choice and greater independence for the people of Cumbria."

A design and access statement submitted with the plans states that the key user groups will be:

  • Older people with dementia and/or who are frail and highly dependent, who require elements of nursing care that can be provided with a residential home environment
  • Wheelchair users and those requiring hoisting
  • Friends and relatives of the older people
  • The wider community

The plans reveal that the home will have “secure gardens of manageable amounts of private outdoor space” while the external layout will provide “amenity and an internal layout for the unit that gives security to its residents and accessibility for all persons with disabilities”.

It adds that a number of key points have been incorporated, including a welcoming main entrance and day activity space, sizeable bedrooms that provide “a small homely seating area for each resident” and lounges and dining rooms that provide access to a garden, terrace or balcony.

Morton Park School closed in summer 2006 and was demolished in 2007.

It was placed in special measures after failing an Ofsted inspection in 2003, with pupils transferred to Newlaithes Infant and Junior schools.

Riverside had hoped to put 53 houses and bungalows on the site after planning permission was granted in 2011, but the housing association’s plans were dashed because a price could not be agreed to buy the 4.3-acre plot.

The new care home plans are expected to go in front of the council’s development control committee in March. Carlisle City Council is among the consultees.