A CARE home that has been empty for a number of years will go under the hammer next month.

In 2017 Bradford Council decided to close Holme View, a 37-bed Council run care home for people with dementia in the centre of the Holme Wood estate.

The site was sold by the Council in 2018, but now Holme View is up for sale once again.

The land and the building will have a guide price of £325,000 when they appears as a lot at the next Pugh Property Auction, being held at Leeds United’s grounds on September 5.

One local Councillor hopes the building is flattened and taken on by a housing developer, claiming the care home building is “too out of date” to be brought back into use.

When the home’s closure was announced, the Council said the facility was “no longer fit for purpose as a care home.”

The closure had proved to be controversial - before a final decision was made a petition calling for the home to be saved had attracted 2,481 signatures.

Council owned properties to go under hammer in bid to fill empty homes

But the Council estimated it would have cost £1m to bring the two storey home up to scratch with modern standards, while closing it would save money.

In 2016/17 the authority spent £1.5m on running Holme View, roughly £40,000 per resident, with income only coming to £352,084.

Residents were moved to other facilities, and the Council has since worked to develop a number of other homes for people with dementia.

The auction listing describes the property saying: “Substantial former Care Home with C2 (provision of residential accommodation and care) planning, previously Council owned, extending to approximately 1,425 sq m (15,339 sq ft) previously providing care for up to 37 residents on a site area of approximately 0.66 hectares (1.64 acres).

“The site maybe suitable for continued C2 usage or development subject to the necessary consents.”

When the closure was first announced Councillor Alan Wainwright (Lab, Tong), said he hoped the site would be re-developed as housing.

After hearing that the site was once again for sale he said: “I haven’t changed my mind. Not just me, but all the Tong councillors think it should be for housing.

“There is no way the building as it is could be modernised.

“You’d have to make the rooms bigger and you’d end up with about 10 rooms. Most care homes aren’t viable unless they have about 40 rooms.

“It is very out of date - I don’t know what you’d do with the building.

“I think the site needs to be housing, I haven’t changed by view.”

He said “scrotes” would regularly get onto the site, and that something needed to be done with such a prominent location.

Other local properties listed in the auction include 672 Halifax Road in Buttershaw, an end of terrace sandwich shop, which has a guide price of £36,500.

A former office building in Keighley, Holly House on Spring Gardens Lane, will have a guide price of £295,000. The site also has a residential annex.

And a 119 square metre plot of land at the end of Stubham Drive in Ilkley will have a guide price of £5,000.

A number of houses owned by Bradford Council, some of which were brought by compulsory purchase orders are also listed as lots.