CORRESPONDENT "Local Taxpayer" (Is Beech Grove re-opening?, Letters, October 3) needs to look at way in which Bury Council is modernising services for the benefit of customers.

Residents, relatives and staff recently heard how the council plans to upgrade Killelea House EPH in Brandlesholme. Builders will begin work in January and during the course of the Killelea refurbishment, 18 beds will be temporarily opened at Beech Grove.

The work at Killelea will be in two phases and requires that half the home is vacated at any one time. Ultimately this work links-in with plans to develop resource centres for older people, offering more short-stay and day-time activities in partnership with health care services.

This refurbishment is linked to work at Elmhurst in Whitefield, with the aim of having 18 intermediate care beds in the north of the borough and 18 in the south.

This will be the second time we have used Beech Grove as a temporary base. Earlier this year, refurbishment work was undertaken at Grundy Day Centre and services moved to Beech Grove for a month whilst work was completed.

Few local authority services have been the subject of such large-scale changes as those undertaken in the last two years in older people's services. These changes are not just about the way services are delivered, but also about the way they work together and about the expectations of people.

There are clear signs that the changes are having the desired effects. For example, last year Bury placed 110 fewer people in residential and nursing home care than the year before, and we have one of the best records locally and nationally for delayed discharges from hospital.

COUNCILLOR

MIKE CONNOLLY,

executive member for

health and social services,

Bury Council.