LABOUR councillors in Blackburn and Darwen last night hit back at claims they were "intimidated" into voting to close two homes for the elderly.

The social services committee last night took the final decision to close Shadsworth House in Dunoon Drive and Laneside in Shorrock Lane, both Blackburn.

The move follows a two-month consultation which an action group battling to keep the homes open has branded a "sham".

Campaigners also claim that councillors were pressurised into voting for the closures.

But Labour councillors say no final decision was taken until last night and that each individual councillor had decided without any pressure from council chiefs to vote for the closures.

Shadsworth ward Coun Mike Madigan said: "There has been no dissent. "We have all supported this because we believe it is what is best for elderly people in the borough as a whole."

Council social services director Ken Foote rejected further campaign group claims that some elderly people had been moved from the homes before the end of the consultation period, without their consent.

Liberal Democrat Coun Karimeh Foster again proposed the transfer of the homes to a non-profit making trust as an alternative to closure.

But Conservative social services spokesman Coun Maureen McGarvey supported the decision to close the two homes.

Most of the £650,000 saved in closing the two homes will be spent on care services for the elderly in Blackburn and Darwen.

The closures are part of a wider shake-up of services for the elderly, including the conversion of a residential home for young adults, in Hopwood Court, into a rehabilitation service for elderly people coming out of hospital.

Another decision taken involved the contracting out 20 per cent of home care services for the elderly to the independent sector.

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