PLANS for a £12m new "super care home" in Southampton are set to move forward.

The Daily Echo revealed earlier this year that Labour council chiefs are planning to build the facility on the site of a recently-closed care home in the city.

They want it to provide flats for up to 100 people needing care for a variety of needs such as dementia, disabilities and and are now set to spend £500,000 to get the project up and running.

The proposed building would be on the site of the former Woodside Lodge dementia home that controversially closed earlier this year in a round of council cutbacks.

It is also the site of a block of old council flats in Wimpson Lane which are now empty after the site was affected by subsidence and both are set to be demolished this month.

Council chiefs say it would be a "housing with care" complex similar to the one being built at Erskine Court, where residents can live in their own homes but request assistance when necessary.

Up to 95 residents would be divided between the Woodside Lodge site, where 80 one and two-bed flats would be built, and a separate block on the site of the former council flats, where 15 other apartments could be created.

As well as the flats the complex is likely to feature multi-purpose rooms which can be used by the wider community and assisted bathing and meals services.

Labour say funding for the scheme is expected to come from Right to Buy (RTB) receipts and borrowing, which council leader Simon Letts has said will be paid back over time through fees paid to the council by residents.

Next week the plans are set to be agreed in principle and approval granted for £500,000 to be spent from the housing and revenue account on architects, surveys and consultancy fees before the planning permission.

Housing boss Warwick Payne said it would be an "exciting" part of the redevelopment of Millbrook and Maybush, adding: "I know there were some people who thought the council would take the money and run when Woodside Lodge closed, but I hope this shows that's exactly what we're not doing.

"We are going to provide the very best housing we can for people in the city and make sure it is fit for the future."

The council is also set to approve a grant of £598,000 from RTB receipts to housing association Aster to complete a development of new affordable homes on the former Bush Inn site opposite.

Construction started on the nine home development in 2014 but stopped after the builder went out of business.

That means Aster has had to re-tender to complete the project and costs have risen by 12 per cent in that time due to issues such as drawing "anomalies", replacement of steel works and security on the site after the contractor went bust.

Cllr Payne added that the council was approving the spending as RTB receipts had to be spent on council housing schemes or ones put forward in the city, and that seven more affordable homes would be created than previously proposed for the site.