OLD soldiers who marched on Burnley Town Hall in their battle to save their home from closure have claimed a victory in being able to stay together.

Although the Whiteacres home for the elderly, in Lansdowne Road, Burnley, is closing, ten of the remaining 15 residents will be moving together to a new unit which is being built at Woodside, Burnley Road, Padiham.

When the closure plans were announced there was a storm of protest which led to the chairman of the social services committee County Coun Doreen Pollitt agreeing to set up a similar unit just for men in the area.

Woodside is mixed, but the unit will be kept separate from the rest of the building and the men will have their own facilities and bedrooms which will retain the men-only status of Whiteacres.

Norman Harling, who was a leading figure in the campaign to keep Whiteacres, described Woodside as a "palace".

"We are very pleased with it," the 87-year-old said. "I will be happy to live out the rest of my days there.

"We have won our fight. We have forced the powers that be in Preston to do this. We have got what we wanted which was to stay together. We would like to have kept Whiteacres open, but when we knew we had lost it, we fought to stay together because we are a family. "We visited the home and 10 of us have decided we want to move there. We are very pleased that we will be able to move together, as a unit, and we will be able to maintain the friendships we have and that is very important to us.

"What struck me about Woodside was how clean and fresh the air was. There is still a lot of work to be done on the wing before it is ready for us, but we were very pleased with what we saw."

County Hall's decision to axe six homes caused a storm of protest with old soldiers marching on borough councils and travelling to Preston to voice their opposition.

Despite petitions, letters and appeals made by local councils, social services county councillors voted to close three homes and convert three others into day centres.

Mr Harling said he expected the residents to move by April 1.

A spokesman for social services said: "We are looking at Woodside with a view to accommodating the residents from Whiteacres."

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