PENSIONERS and their relatives today led the calls for council bosses to think again over their care homes closure plan.

County Hall is revising the way it cares for the elderly and insists a move to looking after more people in their own homes and in day centres will help meet new Government guidelines.

Consultation on the revised proposals, announced earlier this month, which could lead to the closure of 32 of the authority's 48 homes, is due to end tomorrow.

Since the initial plans to close 35 homes were announced in February, County Hall bosses have offered a number of concessions, including a pledge that nobody would be forced into private care, nobody would be forced to move more than twice during the re-organisation and that couple's would not be split up.

A final decision on the closures will be made on September 26.

But for the campaigners that promise is not good enough.

Florence Valentine faces being moved twice when her home for eight years, Ravengarth in Helmshore, is closed.

Florence, 87, who has lived at Ravengarth in Lancaster Avenue for eight years, said today: "At this time, we are like inmates of Battersea Dogs Home, all waiting for a new home to be found for us.

"I imagine places will be hard to find, and all the uncertainty is like living through a nightmare.

"I have gone from being a happy person here to hoping I will die before the day comes where they move me to somewhere new.

"It just an endless worry. The county councillors say they have been to talk to us, but no-one has spoken to me.

"Ravengarth is a very good home, it is my home. We are just being pushed out. I want them to think again, for our sakes."

Marjorie Watson, 82, a resident a Ebor House, in Queen Road, Burnley, has put pen to paper and written to Tony Blair in the hope that he will step in to sort out the crisis -- and save her home. In the letter, the former land army girl said: "It is nice seeing you enjoying your holiday in the south of France as well as in Britain.

"I hope you can enjoy them with a clear conscience because your policies and your party are taking my home away from me."

Marjorie is stone deaf and her only 'family' are her close friends at Ebor House.

She added: "I hope you remember that what goes around, comes around, and that people will not forget what your party is doing for us.

"I feel vulnerable and afraid now this uncertainty is hanging over me. I came here because I thought I would be safe. I was broken into twice when I lived at home."

John Riding's mother Gladys has been a resident at Ravengarth for three years. She is 90.

John, from Cloughfold, said: "She moved into Ravengarth because the private home she was in shut down. A lot of the other residents who lived there died soon after moving because it is a big stress.

"We assumed when she moved into Ravengarth that everything would be safe and there would be no more trauma.

"To say the residents are more happy now they have been told they won't be going into the private sector is a joke because many of them cannot understand what is going on.

"My mother, for one, is deteriorating and I dread to think what the stress of a move could do to her."

The family of Martha Joyce, 80, who is a resident at Hameldon House in Rossendale Road, Burnley, have similar concerns.

They have distributed a leaflet throughout the area which aims to illustrate just what the county council will be cutting if it closes the home.

Son Barry said: "My mother's dementia has got worse in recent months and she no longer remembers much of her past or indeed many of her relatives but she is still happy, always involved in the activities in and out of the home. The staff treat her with respect and the dignity she deserves.

"Above all, she has been happy and well-cared for for the last four years, in a lovely, warm homely atmosphere among friends old and new.

"The diary and pamphlet is aimed to show how she feels about the house and the happy times she has had.

"Hameldon House has been, still is and should always remain a home."

Staff have been banned from talking to the Press about the pending decision, although one Fell View, Longridge worker did say: "You look around at these people and they have no idea what is going to happen to them in the future.

"They fought wars for our country and now the council is preparing to shunt them around so they can move funding from one place to another.

"We might lose our jobs, but these people are going to lose their homes."

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