PLANS for a care home for adults and the elderly with learning disabilities, on the site of a former health centre in Rossendale, have been resurrected.

Developer Krinvest Ltd has confirmed it is interested in building a 22-bed centre on land, off Yorkshire Street, once occupied by Bacup Health Centre.

The town centre site has been a bone of contention with local councillors since GP surgeries in the town moved to a £5million hub in Rochdale Road around a decade ago.

Dr Krishnan Sakunam, the site’s owner, was ordered to tidy up the location, which had been a target for arsonists and vandals, in 2011.

The doctor was originally granted planning permission for a larger 37-bed three-storey care home in 2009. The health centre building itself was later demolished.

Bosses from Krinvest, when they resubmitted the same scheme in 2013, confirmed they had not originally been able to secure funding for the move.

In the meantime the company also saw outline plans successfully approved for a nursery, offices and 10 apartments over three floors.

But Dr Sakunam, who is based in Morden, Surrey, has now put his care home bid back on the table, promising the creation of 10 full-time and 10-part-time posts.

Planning agent Saba Khan said: “The proposed building will have 22 beds, with four on ground floor, nine on the first floor and nine on the second floor. Activity rooms are proposed on ground floor along visitor’s and staff rooms.”

Another ongoing issue has been the insistence by the Environment Agency that no building could be constructed over a culvert on the site. The developers have proposed a scheme which is three metres from a public sewer and ‘tight’ to the side of the culvert.

Mr Khan has also insisted the proposed home, which is opposite Bacup Natural History Society’s headquarters and close to several Grade II-listed buildings along Yorkshire Street and the nearby Bacup Library, will not look out of place.

He added: “The new proposed scheme will have appearance that will sensitively mix into the existing historical surroundings.”

Part of the old health centre site is home to a historical garden, which houses a crushing circle from Guide Quarry and several engraved stones and keystones from old stone mills and factories.