Twenty staff are facing redundancy with the sale of a Bradfield nursing home.

And 14 elderly people will have to be rehoused if the buyer of Bradfield Place Nursing Home does not continue running it as a home.

Sandra Hunt, the home's manager, said: "It is up for sale at the moment and we have given a month's notice to staff and residents. We are trying to find alternative accommodation for the residents."

Mrs Hunt added it depends on who buys the home as to whether it remains a nursing home, and the sale has been forced because of a lack of residents.

Since the home was taken over and refurbished by Riaz Gul in September 1997 it has never had its full complement of 18 residents.

Mrs Hunt said at one time only nine residents were at the home, but it currently has 14.

She said: "Try as we might we haven't been able to fill it up. We can't keep going on a loss. When we took it over we hoped we could gradually build numbers up, but it wasn't to be."

Mrs Hunt said since the news was announced she has been phoning relatives, other homes and social services to try to make the changes "as painless as possible".

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