Pensioners have new-found hope after their closure-threatened East Sussex care home won a reprieve.

Almost 30 people packed a council meeting, some waving placards, in a bid to save the home in Harvard Road, Ringmer.

An East Sussex County Council Cabinet meeting agreed to keep it open to provide short-term and respite care while reports on its long-term future were drawn up.

An embargo on admitting long-stay residents was kept in place.

Councillor Mary McPherson, who spoke at the meeting and is county councillor for Ringmer and Lewes, said: "I am delighted Harvard Road has a future and that if the negotiations succeed we are going to have a much better service.

"Ringmer is a very caring community. People who have grown up there want to be able to spend their last days there and they want to be easily visited by their relatives."

Councillors and protesters heard how an assessment had found the home, which caters for about 38 day residents, offered no unique service that could not be provided in the independent sector at a lower cost.

The report also concluded the building "has an institutional atmosphere, which is not conducive to modern client care".

But the report also revealed there was potential for development due to good access, its location and sheltered position.

Parish councillor Veronica Humphrey, who led the campaign to keep the home open, said: "The main purpose was to retain the home to provide care.

"The council is viewing this from a county angle but to us, Harvard Road has always been an integral part of our community.

"Many of the elderly we are now discussing have given hard work to the community. We don't wish to repay them by banishing them from it."