HOUSES will be built on the site of a former care home in Southampton which controversially closed.

Birch Lawn care home closed in 2010, and now planning permission has been granted to turn the site into a development of 22 affordable homes.

Developer Foreman Homes is likely to start construction work in the next few weeks and work could be completed within a year.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, the council’s decision to close the 33-bed home in Sholing sparked a lengthy legal battle. Campaigners took the battle to the High Court after the council’s then-Conservative hierarchy voted to close the home in 2009.

But despite campaigners arguing that the stress of moving would seriously affect the health of residents, the High Court refused to grant a judicial review of the decision, and after all of its residents moved out it was demolished.

Foreman Homes then bought the site in Sullivan Road, and has now had permission granted to build 22 houses. Two will be two-bedroom homes, 18 three-bedroom and two four-bedroom.

Some of the site will also be landscaped, while there will parking for 29 cars.

The developer is hopeful the homes will be completed by the end of August next year.

With more than 14,000 people currently on the city’s housing waiting list, council housing chiefs have welcomed the granting of planning permission as another step towards meeting that demand.

Labour Cabinet member for housing Warwick Payne said: “There is a difficult history with the Birch Lawns site; however we are now in the situation where we must move forward.”