PLANS have been unveiled for a 66-bedroom care home for older people on a 1.6-acre green space on the edge of Taunton.

LNT Care Developments has applied for planning permission for the scheme in Bathpool.

If it wins permission, the home would be built on a currently vacant site off the roundabout at Heathfield Industrial Park, in Hardys Road.

The home would be included in Ideal Care Homes' portfolio of around 130 care homes built around the country since 2005.

Residents of the home would be expected to have lived within three miles or have family or relatives within the same catchment area.

Up to 60 jobs would be created, with most of them full time.

A statement accompanying a planning application submitted to Somerset West and Taunton Council says: "The development of this site for a care home will have a positive impact upon the area by developing the site for a use that would be beneficial and fulfill a need, whilst providing a development sympathetic in terms of its scale and design.

"The development would bring economic benefits by creating employment and economic activity, both during construction and in the long-term operation of the home.

"Overall it is considered that a positive design approach has been adopted in respect of the proposed development scheme.

"The proposed care home scheme would provide a form of development that would positively enhance the character of the surrounding area, whilst also offering an important local community service and employment."