The manager of a care home in Royal Leamington Spa says she is concerned that some elderly residents will have nowhere to go when it is forced to close in the new year.

Magnolia House on Kenilworth Road will shut its doors in February resulting in 16 elderly residents, suffering from dementia, having to find alternative accommodation.

The owners say they cannot afford to keep it open after an application to extend the building was turned down.

Sandra Coombes, the acting manager of the home, says the residents' familes feel as if they have nowhere to turn.

'Long wait'

She told BBC Radio Coventry: "Relatives are desperate, absolutely desperate.

"They just don't know where to turn or what to do because there are no beds - everywhere they go there's waiting lists.

"In one home alone, I was told there was a waiting list of 58, so I mean, how long are you going to have to wait for a bed?"

'Under funding'

But Bertie McKay, the chair of Warwick District Council's planning committee, says that the main problem lies with central government.

"We have had planning situations before this year where other care homes have also closed, not due to planning matters but due to the fact they can no longer afford to stay operating," he said.

"It's a question of cause and effect here and I think, in many ways, people would appreciate that perhaps the major cause of this is government under-funding in general."