A MOTHER is looking forward to a happy New Year after being told her severely autistic son has secured accommodation at a Woodbury care home. Bev Moore, who lives near Crediton, secured a place for her 19-year-old son, Josh, at Stallcombe House, after the

A MOTHER is looking forward to a happy New Year after being told her severely autistic son has secured accommodation at a Woodbury care home.

Bev Moore, who lives near Crediton, secured a place for her 19-year-old son, Josh, at Stallcombe House, after the place where he previously lived, Coombe House in Coleford, closed down last month due to financial reasons.

Forty-nine-year-old Mrs Moore, said she lost two stone in weight and nearly had a nervous breakdown when she was given just weeks to find a new care home for Josh.

Her son will move into the Woodbury home next Monday, January 18.

She said: "I'm elated that we have got this place. We found it by sheer luck and it was the last one available.

"I said to my husband that it's like we have gone to heaven - it's fabulous. It's a weight off my shoulder. I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through what we went through.

"I came close to a nervous breakdown and just feel all this stress was so unnecessary."

The centre houses 26 residents and its facilities include animal assisted therapy, a parent's room-come-emergency room, and an organic farm, where work is encouraged.

Mrs Moore, last October, was given seven weeks notice that Coombe House would close.

Joshua, who also has underlying health problems, had been staying at the clinic for nearly a year, at �2,000 a week - funded by the Devon Primary Care Trust.

Mrs Moore said both she and staff at Coombe House, whom she described as 'fantastic' were tearful on the day it closed.

But she says she is still angry that the centre closed at such short notice.

She said: "I'm still really cross about the way we have been treated. To throw people with learning disabilities out because they want to make a nice profit is disgusting."

A spokesperson for Coombe House said: "We took the very difficult decision to close Coombe House as the demand for places was significantly below the number required to make this facility financially viable.