A CAMPAIGN group has slammed plans to build a care home for elderly people with dementia in Ashton Park, Preston.

Lancashire County Council is carrying out a consultation on their proposals which would provide a 45-bed centre for long-term patients and a 35-bed daycare centre.

Members of the Friends of Ashton Park, which has been established for almost a year, said if the plans are approved they would be robbed of valuable parkland.

Alison Burrow, chairman of the group, said open space should stay that way. "I've been using the park since I was six and I loved spending days down there having picnics," she said.

"I walk my dogs there and take my 11-month-old son too. It's great for walking or just for having a sit down and relaxing. It's not right they should take any of this away.

"I don't think it is safe either. If one of the patients got out and they became confused something could happen to them. It's also next to a busy road. It seems very dangerous to me."

The park, owned by Preston City Council, was bestowed on the people of Preston by the Pedder family and Ashton House, the stately home where the family lived is now a nursery which would be next to the new building.

Another site for the home, off Tom Benson Way, Cottam, was rejected because it was not on a bus route and considered too difficult to get to.

Danny Gallagher, councillor for Larches ward, said: "They don't have any right to take away public land and the only reason they want it is because it is a cheap alternative. I think the Cottam site would be a better option."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said nothing had been decided yet and at the moment the park is one of two sites that is being investigated.

Representatives from the county council will be at the Western Area Forum tomorrow (September 2) at St Andrew's Church hall, off Blackpool Road, to answer questions on the project.