Council to shut three care homes

A council has decided three care homes it owns in Coventry will close despite opposition from residents' relatives.

Residents would have to leave Jack Ball House, George Rowley House and Hawthorn Lodge, all of which would not be run by the council and would be redeveloped.

The first two, specialist homes for people with Alzheimer's, are planned to close by 2 December and Hawthorn Lodge is proposed to go by 1 September 2009.

Eric Williams House would remain open for about another three years.

'Hard decisions'

It would shut when a new home was put up on the Hawthorn Lodge site, allowing residents from Eric Williams to move there.

The council's acting director of community services, Lynda Bull, said "many, many relatives and carers" had been spoken to individually.

"We've had meetings in each and every one of the residential homes, plus city-wide meetings. We had those at the beginning and at the end of the process," she said.

She added that in an ageing population there would be more people with dementia.

"This is actually about planning new services for the future," she said.

"I know it's a hard one, but to some extent to move forward you do have to make some really hard decisions about closures at whatever time you do that."

Joanne Cadman, whose 88-year-old mother lives at Eric Williams House, agreed meetings had been held but claimed: "I don't think they have listened to us.

"We're the ones that know our family members and know what they need."