The North Cumbria Mental Health Trust has told patients it needs to move away from hospital-based care and switch to more care in the community.

Two mental health wards in north Cumbria will close as part of a plan.

But the trust has promised to replace them with new units on different sites.

The Yewdale ward in Whitehaven and the Beacon unit in Penrith are both to close.

'Crisis care'

Trust chiefs say they have listened to the pleas of hundreds of campaigners who called for beds to be retained.

Managers have decided to build two new units - one in the west and another in the east of the county.

A trust spokesman said: "The new unit in Whitehaven will have 15 places for crisis care and will be based outside the west Cumberland Hospital.

"In Penrith, there will be a new unit with 4 beds."

He said: "There were significant concerns, particularly in west Cumbria but also to a lesser extent in the Eden Valley.

"We have listened to these concerns."