I WAS saddened to read that the campaign to close homes for the elderly in Bury is continuing.

Do the people responsible for this terrible action have any personal experience of having an elderly relative in a home? I think not, otherwise they would not do this.

My wife was resident in Manor Park Nursing Home on Hilton Lane, Prestwich, for three years. Unable to walk, speak or swallow food and drink, she had to be fed a liquid diet through her stomach. Manor Park was an old building, the former Prestwich Town Hall, but it was bursting with love, and the care was first-class.

Then came that awful day, June 25, 1999, when the home had to close due to new regulations. Residents and staff alike were upset and in tears as they were moved out. My wife went to a more modern home but lacked the same sort of love and care and died six weeks later.

This is what happens when these elderly and sick people are uprooted; councillors are handing some of them a death sentence.

As regards moving people back home, I have had experience of that too.

My brother-in-law, aged 90, was sent home, with arrangements made for carers to call three times a day. One day, I found him on the floor. After an emergency visit by paramedics and then his doctor, I eventually got him taken by ambulance to hospital, where he spent hours on a trolley in the corridor, waiting for a bed.

So much for "home care". I hope the electorate will remember who these councillors are when they come up for re-election.

KEN SHAW,

Hampden Road, Prestwich.