Bid to fight care home closures

A national lobbying group is urging people affected by the Staffordshire care home closures to help launch a last gasp countywide co-ordinated campaign against the move.

David Atkins, founder of Rage National, is urging representatives from every care home and day centre affected by Staffordshire County Council's plans to attend a meeting on Monday night in a bid to formulate a plan.

The council intends to reorganise social care across the county and this includes shutting all 22 residential homes and several day care centres. Hundreds of relatives and residents have staged protests against the closures but the authority rubber-stamped the proposal on February 15.

Mr Atkins says he believes a last gasp 'co-ordinated campaign' could still have an impact. He said: "Staffordshire County Council has approved its budget for the 'Changing Lives' proposals. However, this is not the end of the issue; we can still resist the closures and force the council to honour their duty of care to their clients.

"Please attend this meeting so that we can co-ordinate our campaign across the county. It would be great if we could get people representing every day centre and every care home to attend."

The open meeting will take place at 7pm, on Monday at Queen Street Community Centre, Queen Street, Burton-on-Trent.