JOE Harris, the General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, has reported that in 2000, 760 care homes closed, with a loss of nearly 10,000 beds.

"What we now have," he said, "is a cycle of inadequacy, in which nursing homes claim they can't afford to provide the care that people need. Local Authorities say they don't have enough money to pay the care homes while older people are forced to remain in hospital longer than is necessary because care services are not available in the community."

A further report claims that, nationally, old people's care homes are currently closing at the rate of approximately 10 a week.

Contrast both these authoritative statements with County Coun Chris Cheetham's response (Letters, May 31), which while no doubt factually correct, seems at pains to remain politically neutral; not a hint of criticism of past or present government provision or policy.

The only blame he attributes is to his county council predecessors for having the foresight and commitment to take 48 old people's homes into local authority control.

In the face of protests of almost poll-tax proportions across the county Coun Cheetham's party loyalty is extraordinary, but misplaced. Indeed, many have qualified for the ermine and robes of the House of Lords for less resolute party dedication.

Similar to others in local government, he ignores the fundamental, essential reasons inseparable from the forced closures of homes here and in other parts of the country -- that both Tory and New Labour governments have used the ever-growing elderly population for paying the lowest pension in most European counties.

Yet together, faced with their own factual analysis and consequent policy, they then unashamedly ignore the logic -- the need for more choice and options, including elderly residential homes, not less.

There is a clear absence of leadership. The real need and elected duty is to locate, focus and spotlight that virtually the sole reason for these closures is on the shoulders of central government -- it's London not Lancs! Those who control the purse strings and refuse to provide the money to ensure that some of the most vulnerable in society are not spending the remainder of their lives worrying where they are going to live.

COUN DON RISHTON, Wensley Fold Ward, Blackburn with Darwen Council.