AN £8 MILLION care home planned for East Oxford, which would feature a cinema room and an in-house hairdressers, could get the final go ahead at a meeting tonight.

The Orders of St John Care Trust wants to build the home for people with dementia on the site of the former family-run firm WG Powell timber yard on Cowley Road.

The development would include 64 en suite bedrooms, communal areas and other facilities such as a café and a hairdressing salon.

If the plans are approved, it would become the trust’s sixth Oxfordshire care home.

The three-storey building would be built alongside a 21-space car park and be set in landscaped gardens.

It would feature a communal hub with a kitchen, hairdresser, treatment room, shop, lounge and cinema room as well as staff rooms.

Oxford City Council planning documents state the care home itself would employ up to 75 full-time staff, including nurses, care assistants, cooks and administration and maintenance workers.

The trust has said it wants to recruit most of its staff working at its Cowley Road site from within a five-mile radius.

It already employs staff at Longlands in Blackbird Leys and Isis, located in Cornwallis Road, Florence Park.

Planning permission has already been granted for the demolition of the WG Powell buildings. They were closed in 2015 after the company started in 1923.

Along with the 21-space car park, a further 12 cycle parking spaces would be provided on the redeveloped site.

Approval for a 60-bedroom care home was initially granted by Oxford City councillors in August 2015 and the trust altered its plans for a 72-bedroom care home in January.

When the trust’s current application was filed, the trust’s operations director, Kevin Hall, said: “We were very pleased to have the opportunity to develop the Cowley Road site. It is a big project, so the application took some months to pull together and involved a range of specialists to provide as comprehensive a plan as possible.”

Building will take into account reduced noise, open areas and a careful choice of colours which would help people with dementia.

Mr Hall added: “The communal areas will include themed interior design to provide destination areas. We believe in offering our residents as much opportunity as possible to maintain their independence and continue to enjoy a good quality of life.”

The care home would be staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Mr Hall said: “Recruitment is always a challenge but we do invest in our employees and we’re confident that the creation of a new state-of-the-art facility, combined with our good reputation, will enable us to attract the necessary staff.”

Councillors on the East Area planning committee will be asked to approve the plan at a meeting at Oxford Town Hall's Long Room from 6pm.