Residents in battle to save home

Twelve people live at the Snettisham care home

A group of elderly residents have started a legal battle to try to save their care home from closing.

Closure of the Sue Ryder home at Snettisham, Norfolk, means 12 people will have to find new accommodation and 60 staff will lose their jobs.

The home, and a second in Walsingham, have been under threat since November 2005 when the charity revealed it was £600,000 in debt.

Now seven residents are seeking a High Court injunction to keep the home open.

'Duty of care'

They have engaged solicitor Yvonne Hossack based in Kettering, Northants, to take on the case.

"Private care homes do not have the same rights as residents of public care homes.

"This is a matter the courts are looking at now, Ms Hossack told BBC News.

"Sue Ryder has a duty of care to these people and if they are moved it is liable to affect their health.

"We are applying for an injunction to prevent them being moved."

Sue Ryder Care has cited lack of use of beds by Norfolk's primary care trusts as a reason for the home's closure.

It says the county's primary care trusts had failed to keep promises over the number of referrals for specialist neurological care.

Norfolk Primary Care Trusts said there had never been a block contract covering placements, which were made on an individual patient basis.