EIGHT members of the same family marched in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph march in support of the area's care homes.

Kath Shackleton, 42, of Spring Avenue, Great Harwood, marched with her family in protest at the proposed closure of the day centre section of the Woodlands home, in Accrington, which is one of the few homes to remain open.

The county council has included plans to close the day care provided at the home in Warwick Avenue, Accrington, as part of its plans to close 35 of its 48 care homes - 19 of which are in East Lancashire.

Kath and her family were there with her 68-year-old wheelchair-bound mother Kathleen Whalley, of Oswaldtwistle, who visits the home once a week.

She said the proposals to close the day care at the Woodlands had devastated the whole family and she held head of Lancashire County Council's social services, Coun Chris Cheetham, responsible.

"He has intruded into my life and I am very angry about it. We've got the whole family here, because it is going to affect every one of us.

"The day centre is a lifeline for my mother. There are no politics in this as far as I am concerned. It could be the Monster Raving Loony Party for all I care. What they are doing is wrong. I don't have children and my taxes go on schools and so on, but the one facility I need for my mother could be taken away."

Her mother Kathleen said: "It has made me more independent. I get my hair done there and things like that. There are some people that just don't get out except for going there. I think the people who thought of this should be sacked."