SUPPORTERS of the fight to keep Lancashire's OAP homes open today vowed to battle on despite a county council promise that elderly residents will not be forced into private care.

Lancashire County Council leader Coun Hazel Harding said yesterday that plans to speed through the closures by moving frail residents into private sector homes had been scrapped.

She said officials were looking at ways of funding a new purpose-built home to help ease the closure of any homes which the council decides to axe after a consultation period.

But supporters trying to halt the 35 home closures, which is the subject of a Lancashire Evening Telegraph appeal, Save Our Homes, have said they are unconvinced.

Frank Hessey, chairman of the Lancashire Care Association, which represents private homes, said he was very sceptical, although he welcomed the feeling that the public's concerns were being listened to.

"I am very wary of this announcement, because we don't know how they are going to produce it," he said. "If it does mean that they have to move somebody 30 miles away from their home, then that is not acceptable.

"We need to know what their strategy is and how they are going to work it before we can really say any more."

Sheila McVan, from Marlowe Avenue, Baxenden, who has organised a petition around Baxenden against the proposals, which involve 19 homes in East Lancashire, said she was not convinced the news would be followed with action.

She said: "I am a bit worried about the latest statement - it is a bit ambiguous. They should stay in the county council homes if that's what they want, but they won't be able to stay in the ones they want, because they will be closing."

Mrs McVan said it was particularly of concern to Baxenden residents because there was no private home in the area to go into and the nearest one was in Clayton-le-Moors.

Gwen Gallagher, of Edleston Street, Accrington, works as an assistant at the Woodlands home in Baxenden and said she had seen first-hand how the proposals were affecting people.

She said: "They live as a family in these places and do things together. It would be like splitting up the family home to close the home and move them elsewhere. At that age, they just don't need that sort of worry."

A spokesman for Help the Aged said: "First and foremost the impact on home closures on older people is devastating. When homes close and older people are forced to move to alternative care homes, many of which are inappropriate for their care needs and far from friends and family, it is devastating for them. Even if they are only asked to move once, it is still disruptive."

Dr Duncan Banks, an Open University expert on care of the elderly in society, said: "It is going to be disastrous to ask elderly people to move from their homes. The impact will be felt in the local community and local hospitals. It is a case of very bad planning."

The Telegraph has been inundated with more than 650 responses to our appeal from the public, opposing the closure of 35 homes out of 48 in the county.

Give us your views NOW...click here.