A CARE home owner is to develop two sites in Darlington identified as suitable for the purpose.

Last year, Darlington Borough Council identified a number of pieces of land on which private companies could build care homes, after the closure of a number of homes in the borough because of cash problems.

Many closed because it was considered too costly to upgrade them, and some private homes shut because they were not financially viable.

Gary Lewis, of Gateshead, is in the process of buying land at Hundens Park and the site of the council's former Winton House sheltered housing complex, in Ianson Street, from the authority.

He has submitted planning applications, via specialist agent Alston Murphy Associates, of Newcastle, for 60-bed care homes to be built on each site.

Mr Lewis already owns homes in Gateshead and Jarrow.

It is hoped, should the applications be approved, that construction of the home in Ianson Street could begin in late June or early July, followed six to eight months later by construction of the other building.

Both homes would be fully accessible to disabled people, with the Hundens Park building being created on two floors, and the Ianson Street site having a ground and first floor in a sloping design.