The need for extra beds for the growing number of people in Norfolk with dementia means a Norwich care home which shut two years ago could be revamped and reopened.
Mountfield Care Home, in Millcroft to the north of the city, was one of four care homes which closed when a new £19m care village opened in Bowthorpe.
Residents moved out of Mountfield in 2016 to be re-homed at Bowthorpe Care Village. That has an 80-bed specialist dementia care home run by NorseCare and a 92-apartment housing with care scheme run by Saffron Housing Trust.
But NorseCare, an arms-length company of Norfolk County Council, now wants permission to revamp, refurbish and extend Mountfield to help cope with demand for dementia care.
Karen Knight, managing director of NorseCare, said: 'With the current high demand and projected increase in the number of people who will require residential dementia care across the whole county, Norsecare are confident that this home will be well placed to provide quality care for people who require our specialist support.'
The proposal, lodged with Norwich City Council, is to refurbish and extend the existing, currently empty, 39-ned care home to create a 46-bed care home, 44 of which would be en-suite rooms.
The existing care home is two storeys high and the extension would also be two storeys in scale, but designed with two gabled wings.
NorseCare has not said how much the project will cost, but documents lodged with the city council state that it would need 16 full-time staff and 29 part-time staff.
If planning permission is secured, the home could be ready to welcome residents by autumn next year.
The city council will make a decision on whether to grant permission in due course.
Of the other three care homes which were closed, Heathfield, in Cannell Green, has already been turned into student accommodation habing been sold for £701.000.
Somerley House, in Somerleyton Gardens, which was sold for £1.1m, is also being turned into homes for students.
And the city council last year gave the go-ahead for Philadelphia House, in Penn Grove, which sold for £610,000 to be turned into 18 apartments.
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