Homes axe law action

Campaigners against the closure of residential care homes in Staffordshire are set to launch legal action against the county council within weeks.

Angry residents and their families have vowed to continue their fight and plan to challenge the closures at the High Court.

News came after the founder of national campaign charity Relatives Action Group for the Elderly (RAGE), said out of 26 similar cases he dealt with, he felt Staffordshire County Council had acted in the most 'inept and heartless' way.

A letter is now being sent to the council by a solicitor acting on behalf of more than 750 affected people demanding that the authority scraps its proposals – or face a judicial review. A separate application for a court injunction – to impose a temporary delay on the closures – is also set to be submitted.

The move comes following a meeting set up by RAGE National, led by its founder David Atkins, from Cambridge, who says his own father died because of the upheaval associated with the planned closure of the care home he was in.

Mr Atkins says he wants to help others in similar situations and says 40 per cent of homes or day care centres his campaign group has helped have been saved. Mr Atkins says he has urged relatives and service users from the affected homes to sign up for a judicial review and to take it in turns to deliver a petition or letter to 10 Downing Street every Monday to ensure they get noticed.

He said: "We have helped kickstart a campaign which could stop the closures. Lots of people came to us looking worried and depressed but we have given them a little hope – although there is no guarantee.

"We need representation from every single facility to sign up for judicial review. If we win, only the ones who sign up and are party to the action will be saved. It is the residents who bring the case and the solicitor does everything else."

The group's solicitor Yvonne Hossack says she believes there is a legitimate challenge against the council's actions on the grounds of 'unlawfulness and irrationality'. She says more than 40 people have already signed up for Legal Aid and that proceedings could start within weeks.

Staffordshire County Council is set to close all of its residential care homes and day centres as part of its Changing lives policy. The authority says it will improve services so pensioners can remain living in their own homes as well as buy spaces in private care homes to cater for those who require residential care.