Plans have been submitted to build a £3m care home in Wantage to help meet a demand for places for the elderly in the area.

The proposal to demolish the former health care centre in Garston Lane and build a 50-bedroom care home in its place has been made by Worcester-based Sanctuary Care Limited, which runs 14 care centres in the South and South West of England.

It follows a decision by the South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to sell the health centre to the Wantage Nursing Home Charitable Trust for an undisclosed sum.

The trust will grant a long lease to Sanctuary, which has designed and will build and manage the care centre, providing short and long term nursing services.

Sanctuary will also use the care home as a base for a service caring for vulnerable people in their own homes in the area.

Chris Gardner, Sanctuary's senior development manager for care, said he hoped the sale would be completed by mid summer so building work could start in late autumn.

A public meeting is to be organised about the plans, which will be considered by the Vale of White Horse District Council.

The town council is due to discuss the planning application on March 14.

The plans are out for public consultation until March 31.