Elderly residents of a Wolverhampton care home condemned to closure have won a stay of execution ahead of a new courtroom showdown with the council.

Today it emerged lawyers acting for pensioners in Underhill House will again plead their case in an open-court hearing next month.

High Court judge Martin McKenna rejected a request for a judicial review last month and the home’s 10 remaining residents were devastated at being told they would be moved out.

But solicitors have now secured a hearing at Birmingham County Court on September 9. The Court of Appeal has also stepped in and said the pensioners can stay put until the conclusion of the new hearing.

The council wants to shut the home in Fallings Park to save £360,000.

Fallings Park Labour councillor Steve Evans said today: “This is fantastic news and there is a renewed sense of hope. The residents had been told ‘it’s all over’ and were resigned to moving out. But now it has all been turned around.”

The court action is in the name of 106-year-old resident Louisa Watts.

City council spokesman Gurdip Thandi said today the authority would abide by the interim injunction pending the reconsideration hearing next month.