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A care provider in Cornwall is planning to close two care homes and replace them with a new multimillion-pound residential centre in St Ives.

The £12m plans from Cornwall Care include a 72-bedroom care home with nursing, plus 26 extra care units for clients who live more independently.

It has submitted a planning application for the site in Higher Tregenna Road.

Cornwall Care said it was closing the two homes in Carbis Bay - Trewartha and Headlands - because they were outdated.

The Trewartha home currently houses 40 people and the Headlands site 32. Both buildings are more than 40 years old.

Company chief executive Douglas Webb said the new centre would replace "like-for-like" the number of nursing care bedroom spaces at the two homes and residents would be moved if the plans were approved and the centre built.

He said: "Those care homes have served us and served the community very well for many, many years.

"But they really don't provide the kind of resources that people say they need and want, and, quite frankly, the resources that staff need."

The not-for-profit organisation said the new project, which would be on a five-acre site, would offer more integrated facilities and also allow it to cater for growing numbers of older people with increasingly complex care needs.

It added that the new project would also offer facilities for those in the area who just needed occasional nursing care.

The facility would employ about 100 staff.

The plans have the backing of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust and the Cornwall Council's Department of Adult Care and Support.

A decision on the planning application is expected later in the year.