WORK has started on the £4.3 million care home which is being built on the site of the old Torpedo Factory on Heather Avenue, Alexandria.

In December, we revealed council bosses had given the green light to the state-of-the-art 65-bed home.

The new facility, built by Seddon, is expected to create 70 new jobs and will include a 20-bed specialist dementia unit, bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms as well as an extensive range of communal facilities.

Outside, the grounds will be landscaped with the care home benefitting from a central secure sensory garden for patients with dementia.

The building will also incorporate a range of energy-saving features including underfloor heating fed by air source heat pumps.

Eva McKellar, secretary of Age Concern Vale of Leven, spoke to the Reporter when the home was first approved.

She said: “I think that’s really great for the people of Alexandria, having it in the town, to save the locals having to leave the district.

“I think when you look at what happened at Castle Glen in Dumbarton, a lot of those people had to get moved out of the area into Clydebank, it’s important to keep people in the area, not just for their families and themselves.” The home will be run by care home operator Fairfield Care Ltd and is set to open its doors in May of next year.

A TORY peer who suggested users of services like West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare spend their money on junk food has been labelled ‘out of touch’.

Last week, Lord Tebbit was speaking in the House of Lords debate on the increased reliance on foodbanks when he asked ‘initiate research into junk food sales in areas where people are relying for basic food on the food banks’.

West of Scotland MSP Stuart McMillan said: “We live in a country brimming with resources and talent but we are now reducing the most vulnerable people in society to using foodbanks — who now find that they are then mocked and pilloried like this by a peer of the realm.

“I hosted a members debate on foodbanks just last month and commented recently on the shocking rise in numbers of people who now have to rely on such help to feed their families.”