A NEW care home being built in a Hampshire town is set to create more than 100 jobs.

The £5.5m Carpathia Grange, which is due to open later this year, will provide full-time residential, nursing and specialist dementia care for up to 62 people.

News of the jobs boost comes weeks after it was announced that a new care home in Southampton will also employ more than 100 people.

The Abbeyfield Society has launched a campaign to recruit staff for Speedwell Court in Mansbridge Road, which is due to welcome its first residents next month.

Run by Care UK, the three-storey complex being built at Hythe will have its own cinema, cafe and hair salon.

Andrew Brett, Care UK’s development project manager said: “The site represents a major investment and reflects our commitment to improving the provision of residential care in the town.”

A topping out ceremony was performed by the Sheriff of Southampton, Cllr Peter Baillie.

He said: “Hythe will benefit greatly from this state-of-the-art building, which will be a welcome addition for the community.”

Carpathia Grange is springing up on land formerly occupied by the Forresters Respite Centre.

A previous proposal to build a 70-bed care home on the same site was thrown out.

The latest application was opposed by Hythe and Dibden Parish Council, which said the proposed development would be “overbearing” and “unneighbourly” to people living nearby.

The district council also received 18 letters of objection from local residents, many of whom said the home would be too big and too tall.

But a report to members said: “It is important to recognise that the proposal would deliver social benefits in terms of improved care for the elderly and economic benefits in terms of providing additional employment.

“The proposal is for a significant new development that will clearly have an appreciable impact on its immediate surroundings.

“However, it is felt the proposal adequately addresses the environmental concerns that resulted in the previous application being refused.

“The development would be a well-designed building that would be sympathetic to its setting. The size of the building would be acceptable in this setting.”

Care UK says the home will enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives.

It has been named after the ship which saved 700 lives after the Titanic sank during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.