DETAILED plans for a care home on the site of an abandoned factory in Hamworthy have been submitted to Poole council.

Barchester Healthcare has submitted proposals for a 68-bed facility at the former Crown Closures factory, which is being demolished.

Barratt Homes was previously given planning permission to build 104 new homes and a 66-bed care home on the Lake Road site. On behalf of Barchester Healthcare, TDC Architects said a "cleared and clean (contamination free) site" would be handed over by Barratt Homes for Barchester Healthcare's proposed development.

The care home would have 14 bedrooms on the lower ground floor, 27 bedrooms on the ground floor, and 27 bedrooms on the first floor.

The development would create up to 120 new jobs according to the planning application - around the same number of jobs lost at the factory when it closed in 2015.

In the planning application put before Poole council, TDC Architects state there is a need for the type of care home proposed.

"Studies have shown that there is currently an under supply of full-time professional care, particularly that offered in a facility which meets with the current care standards monitored by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). "Therefore the applicant has concluded that a facility such as this will go a considerable way towards meeting with this under-supply of inadequate provision."

They add: "The new residential care home will be constructed and serviced to a very high standard and we believe will bring measurable benefits to the local community."

A proposed 24 car parking spaces would be provided with the development.

When Crown Closures closed there were calls to preserve the building’s brick chimney, as a memorial to Poole’s industrial past.

However, developers said to do so would have jeopardised housing on the site - which has been named Lakeside.

At its height, the company - which had gone under many names over the years including Wallis Tin, Metal Box, Carnaud Metal Box and Crown Food Europe -employed more than 1,200 workers.