Residents in Watlington have bought their community hospital three years after it was closed down by the NHS.

The £1.4m sale means a GP surgery and 60-bed care home planned for the site should be built next year.

Watlington Hospital Charitable Trust, an organisation set up to conserve the site for health care, is celebrating its success.

Trust chairman Charles Farrell said: "None of this development could have taken place without the wonderful support of local people and charitable organisations which enabled over £1.5m to be raised to purchase the site, including legal and planning costs."

Oxfordshire Health Authority closed Watlington Hospital in 1999 as part of £1.15m cost-cutting measures.

Mr Farrell said: "It's been a struggle. We've had to go through 20 legal agreements with the NHS alone. It's sad that a very important project like this, with enormous support from local community, should be held up by every sort of bureaucracy."

Non-profit organisation Sanctuary Care will also be involved in the care home. Watlington Hospital was sold by South East Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, whose chief executive Anne Kirkpatrick said: "We are delighted that the former Watlington Community Hospital site will continue to be used to bring health benefits to the local community.'