Plans to build a new nursing home could take a major step forward when they go before a meeting next week.

The future of the Wantage Health Centre site, the intended location of the home, is being discussed at a joint board meeting between South East and South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trusts next Thursday (January 29) at a public meeting in Wantage Civic Hall at 9.30am.

Last April, a meeting heard there was a shortage of affordable nursing home care in the Wantage area, and a new community nursing home would save the town's elderly from travelling miles for the care they need.

Wantage Nursing Home Charitable Trust is hoping the board will approve it as the preferred buyer for the former doctors surgery site in Garston Lane.

The trust was formed last year to negotiate with the PCT over the sale of the freehold and to raise the necessary funds to buy the land. The trust has been in talks with charitable trust Sanctuary Housing Association to build the home.