UP to 70 jobs will be created after a proposal to build a new care home in Kidlington was approved.

The Port Haven home will be built at the Gravel Pits site in The Moors next to Briar Close and will provide 70 beds with a focus on elderly people with dementia.

It was approved by councillors at Cherwell District Council’s planning committee on Thursday.

The decision was deferred from last month following objections that the entrance could be dangerous because of ambulances getting to the home.

But the developers Castlemead said requests to reconsider the entrance were unreasonable.

Spokesman Tony Cole said: “We are delighted with the decision. There is accommodation needed locally for residents in Kidlington and the surrounding area.”

Mr Cole said the firm had chosen the village because it demonstrated the need for increased dementia care. He added: “We used a number of different sources including national statistics of the ageing population and with the growing elderly population there is a massive need for dementia care.”

He said it had looked at a different entrance to the site but it was not possible because of land owned by a third party and because it would then be through a cul de sac rather than off the main road. Council leader Barry Wood said there could be no argument against the entrance because it had been approved by the Highways Agency.

In a letter to planning officer Paul Ihringer before the meeting, Patricia Redpath from Kidlington Parish Council added: “The suggestion was that because this was a care home for the frail elderly, there would be a need for numerous emergency transfers to hospital.

“This fails to recognise that there will be medical facilities and staff on site to facilitate nursing care at the home.

“Where there is a need for any emergency ambulance access it would actually be safer to have such access from The Moors than through a cul de sac housing estate where children could be playing.”

Kidlington Parish Council agreed last year to sell off allotments for the development. The council previously said no plot holders have lost a space and can use new plots next to the site or at another village site in Bicester Road.