CAMPAIGNERS fighting to halt the closure of 35 of Lancashire's 48 care homes were today urged to stand united if they want to win their battle.

Around 60 people attended a public meeting held in Accrington Town Hall last night, all opposing plans to close four out of the borough's five county council run care homes.

A petition containing 1,700 signatures collected by Lynne Atkinson, whose mother Marian Stone has been a resident at Hill Top Nursing Home, Manchester Road, Baxenden, for nearly three years, was handed over to the chairman of the meeting, County Coun Wendy Dwyer.

The meeting was also attended by David Atkins, the chairman of Relatives Action Group for the Elderly (RAGE), a national organisation set up two years ago when councils across the country first began proposing cutbacks.

Lancashire County Council needs £14.5million to refurbish its homes and bring them up to standard. Instead of spending the money on the repairs, it wants to sell many of them off and plough the cash into domiciliary care.

Last week, council bosses pledged that no-one would be forced into private care if they did not want to go -- but called on the Government for extra cash to help deliver that promise.

But Mr Atkins told the meeting; "There are other ways here. If everyone gets together and fights it, the council will back down.

"We have had success in other areas. In some we have saved several homes.

"But in places like Medway, we have won. The politicians have faced such an outcry that they have had to sit on their hands. They know that, in the future, we need more care and not less."

He added: "This situation is not the council's fault. It is the Government's for underfunding the service. The council needs to know that you want them to go to government for more, rather than cutting services."

Mr Atkins spoke to several key campaigners fighting to save individual homes to try and persuade them to join his organisation, which has also taken councils to court to keep homes open.

Coun Chris Cheetham, cabinet member for social services, was at the meeting. He said: "Even if the Government gave me a cheque for £14.5million, I doubt I would spend it all on the homes. We have to look at what people want and I still think people would rather stay in their homes, surrounded by their belongings and with their memories rather than in a small room." Borough councillors attending the meeting blasted the way it was handled.

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