A SHELTERED housing home in Hereford is to close because elderly people do not want to live there.

Highmore Court has 16 tenants, though there is space for 43.

Marches Housing Association, which manages the Highmore Street building, said the low numbers meant the home would shut in the next 12 to 18 months.

Chris Boote, the association's director of operations, said: "We simply cannot let the bedsits anymore - potential tenants come and see them and decide they are not for them.

"Both elderly people and their families find the size and quality of the bedsit accommodation unacceptable, so we have a situation where we currently have the scheme two thirds empty.

"That in itself is not good for the remaining tenants, bearing in mind that while sheltered housing allows elderly people to live independently, it is supposed to offer them the chance to be a part of a small community and to provide opportunities to meet and share time together in the communal areas of the scheme.

"That has become increasingly difficult at Highmore Court."

Mr Boote said everything would be done to help find the 16 remaining tenants suitable accommodation in the area.

Highmore Court was built in 1979 and was first managed by the Rural Midland Housing Association.

The home, which has nine one-bedroom flats, 34 bedsits for people aged 60 and above, and a flat for the on-site scheme manager, passed into the hands of the Marches Housing Association in 1996.

Mr Boote said his association were now looking at ways to develop the site into a modern affordabe housing scheme for the 21st century.

But he said his immediate priority was to make the moving process for the remaining residents as "gentle and painless" as possible.