Barnard Castle's Stoneleigh residential home is due for closure in six months' time as part of a Durham County Council modernisation programme.

Relatives and carers were called to a meeting on Wednesday so officials could explain why the date had been changed from the original deadline of March next year.

Stoneleigh is one of three homes in the county which have to be demolished to enable new extra care facilities to be built. Seventeen other homes are being closed.

A council spokesman said yesterday: "We feel six months is an adequate period of time to help the residents examine the options and to relocate them in a calm and orderly way.

"We are still looking for alternative sites, because ideally we would like to keep people there as long as possible and build the new extra care development elsewhere. But that doesn't look possible at the moment, so we have had to make contingency plans."

He stressed: "We will be explaining the options available and it will be up to the residents and their carers where they choose to go. But there are only a limited number of independent sector homes in the Barnard Castle area and it may be some of the nearest will be out towards West Auckland."