A FORMER Accrington care home has been sold at auction for double the asking price.

Acorn Lodge on Nuttall Street closed down last November, two years after being condemned as part of Lancashire County Council's controversial plan to axe old folk's homes across the county.

The 35-room property was put up for sale by the county council at an auction at Manchester Airport in December but failed to reach the reserve price of £300,000.

But when it went under the hammer for the second time at the airport last week, it sold for a staggering £645,000 to an undisclosed buyer.

Barnfield councillor Paul Barton last year, called for the building to be turned into a day centre for community use and condemned the decision to sell it off.

He is now calling on the new owners to develop the site "properly" and not let it rot.

He said: "I would like to find out who has bought it as a lot of people in the Woodnook area are worried about what it is going to be.

"They might knock it down and build something else or turn it into flats. I would just like to see it developed properly, into nice flats or houses. It is a worry because it has become a bit of an eyesore.

"We don't want to see it go to rack and ruin like Peel Court in Oswaldtwistle. It is on the road to the heart of the town centre so we want it to be right."