Luxury for axed home residents

Residents from a Staffordshire care home, axed due to spiralling costs, have been moved into a luxury complex – which charges more than £1,000 a week per person.

Pensioners moved out of Bilbrook House are now living at the £21million Sunrise Residential Village in Tettenhall at the cost of taxpayers.

Staffordshire County Council confirmed today it was funding “a number” of residents at the home, which can charge residents up to £50,000 a year to stay.

Bilbrook House was among 13 homes which the council decided to close in November, leaving campaigners devastated.

Council chiefs said the home was “not fit for purpose” and they could not afford to keep it open.

Twenty residents were left without a home, but several of them are now living at the Wergs Road complex which boasts five-star accommodation, silver service and plasma TVs.

Councillor Susan Woodward, Cabinet Member for Older People and Healthier Communities said: “Residents were given a choice of options available to them once their care needs had been assessed and a number of them chose to move to Sunrise Residential Village fully supported and facilitated by us.”