DETAILED plans for a 60-bed nursing home at Andover War Memorial Hospital were unveiled at a public meeting in the Guildhall.

The proposals are part of a £60m Hampshire County Council strategy for 500 elderly care beds to ease the nursing home shortage in Hampshire and go some way to solving bed blocking problems.

A planning application to build the home was submitted to Test Valley Borough Council last week. It will house nine intermediate care patients, 27 elderly/ infirm and 24 general nursing beds on the current temporary gravel staff car park.

The proposed development, a partnership between Hampshire County Council, Mid Hampshire Primary Care Trust and Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, is a two-storey building with 60 bedrooms with ensuite toilet facilities, lounge/dining rooms, assisted bathrooms, TV rooms, an occupational therapy room, a medical room, visitors room, staff offices and a laundry. Kitchen facilities would be shared with the hospital.

Bedrooms would be arranged in groups of ten, each with its own communal living spaces.

The nursing home would be entered off the main entrance to the hospital site.

There would also be a private courtyard area and the existing temporary car park would be relocated to a green strip within the hospital grounds.

Rod Halls, chief executive of Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, explained that out of 600 beds on the trust's three sites 78 were blocked and this positive step would help ensure the future of Andover War Memorial Hospital.

He said: "This is an excellent first step in maintaining the type of facility which ought to be in Andover. It is one way of making the site most useful for local people."

Officers also spoke to reassure the owners of neighbouring homes that a screen of trees would ensure their privacy as well as that of nursing home residents.

Residents at the meeting were also delighted to hear that traffic calming measures along Charlton Road and related to the scheme have now been approved.

The road will be narrowed at four crossing points.

The traffic calming measures are listed in Hampshire County Council's programme for 2004/2005.

Public comments on the plan should be addressed to Test Valley Borough Council's planning department.