CARE for the elderly in the Redcar and Cleveland area came under the spotlight this week, with news of a new home for Guisborough and discussions with MPs.

Hartburn Care Homes was granted outline planning permission for a residential home with more than 70 beds and a day centre for 20 people at the Woodhouse Triangle, near the A171 junction with Middlesbrough Road.

The landowner was also given permission to develop the rest of the site with a petrol filling station, a fast food outlet and a pub or restaurant.

Coun Valerie Halton, cabinet member for social services and health, said: "I am delighted with these plans to build a much-needed new care home for elderly people in Guisborough.

"It will increase the number of places for nursing and residential care in line with increasing demand in Redcar and Cleveland."

A delegation from Redcar and Cleveland travelled to Westminster on Monday to lobby Health Minister Stephen Ladyman for more funding.

Care home owners, MPs, the council's director of health and social care and the chief executive of Age Concern also handed in an 8,000-signature petition signed by local people.

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP, Dr Ashok Kumar, was among the party and said the Minister listened intently to what was said.

Mr Ladyman made it clear that care for the elderly was a national issue that would hopefully be addressed in a forthcoming Government Green Paper.

Dr Kumar said: "They did not exactly come away with a cheque in their hands, but the various parties were left feeling they had not been ignored."

Martin Sanderson, a member of the management team at Graceland Nursing Home in Guisborough, said the meeting was a positive one.

"The Minister was receptive to what we thought and gave some good pointers to how we could work with the council and the primary care trusts in the future," he said.

On Tuesday, Nigel Waterson, Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions and co-chairman of the all-party group for older people, met care home representatives at Castle Court Nursing Home, Boosbeck.

"We discussed the problems facing owners of care homes, for example too much red tape and regulation and the variations in the rates paid by local authorities around the country. Redcar and Cleveland is just about bottom of the league in the North-East," he said.

"There are also problems with staffing, particularly when competing with higher rates of pay in the NHS itself, and we are keen to encourage local authorities to pay a more realistic rate.

"We need to reverse the trend of home closures and reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation.

"We also have to encourage the private and independent sectors, who are going to be the providers for the future."