Care home consultation rethink rejected

A controversial review that has placed a question mark over the futures of five Lancashire care homes will not be cancelled, the politician leading the process has said.

Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for adult social care, Graham Dalton, was responding to calls for the ongoing reassessment of the local authority-run facilities to be halted.

The possibility of closure has hung over the homes – in Adlington, Clayton-le-Moors, Colne, Kirkham and Thornton Cleveleys – since a consultation into the “reprovision” of their services was launched last month.   It came after the county council warned that the buildings were in “significantly poor condition”.

The consultation closes on 12th December and a decision will not be taken until February – but even the suggestion that any of the premises might shut has sparked uproar, with petitions in support of the homes attracting thousands of signatures.

At a meeting of the Reform UK-controlled authority, Progressive Lancashire opposition group leader Azhar Ali repeated a plea – revealed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier this month – for the current review to be scrapped and for a cross-party group to be established to help draw up a three-year investment plan and ensure the facilities remain in operation.

That would give residents and their families “the opportunity to spend Christmas in peace”, County Cllr Ali said.

“There’s absolutely no reason [why] any of these homes should be closed or privatised,” he added.

His call for the review to be halted was echoed by Green Party group leader – and Progressive Lancashire deputy leader – Gina Dowding, Liberal Democrat David Whipp, in whose district one of the homes – Favordale, in Colne – is based, and Labour group leader Mark Clifford, who described the consultation as “the most ham-fisted” he had ever seen.

New condition surveys for each of the buildings – along with five day centres which are also part of the review – are now being prepared after it emerged that some of the properties have had improvements made since the last time they were assessed in 2021.   The updated surveys will inform the final decision.

However, County Cllr Dalton said the consultation itself “will not be stopped” and, while praising “the passion” of those connected to the homes – some of whom were watching from the public gallery – also claimed that there was “a political game going on” amongst councillors over the matter.

Stressing that he had no pre-determined idea of “what will close and what will stay open”, he added: ““The Tory party are not saying much on this issue.   This all began a long time before we took power.

“What we are doing is trying to unpick years, if not decades, of a lack of spend .  We have plans that were looked at before us – and people were scared, because of politics… to make things better,” County Cllr Dalton said.

However Conservative group leader Aidy Riggott – a cabinet member in the administration that ran the county council between 2017 and May 2025, when Reform won control – demanded the accusation about his party’s involvement in the lead-up to the current process be withdrawn.

“I believe he has misled the chamber unless he can point to – right here and now – the cabinet report…that took that decision,“ County Cllr Riggott said.

But County Cllr Dalton indicated through the chair of the meeting that he wanted his comment to stand.

In an increasingly ill-tempered debate, he was also accused by County Cllr Ali of having directed online “abuse” at County Cllr Kim Snape who has been at the forefront of the campaign to save the Grove House care home in Adlington.   However, earlier in the proceedings, County Cllr Dalton said he had been “the victim of so much abuse, it’s been unbelievable”.

Meanwhile, County Cllr Snape herself said that questions she had asked of council officers at the start of October – and at a meeting of the health and adult services scrutiny committee earlier this month – had still not been answered and so were stymying her ability to engage on behalf of residents.

Last week, Chorley Council passed a notice of motion also calling for the care consultation to be paused to allow time to “explore options” to keep Grove House open.

Cllr June Molyneaux, who represents the ward in which the facility stands, said three quarters of its residents have dementia.

“Where are these people going to go?   There are people desperate to get in a place like Grove House, where they’ll be looked after, and there are the residents [living there already], she said.

Cllr Molyneaux also questioned whether the county council was “deliberately running…down” the home by putting a stop on new, long-stay residents being admitted until the review concludes, as it has at the other four residential facilities being reassessed.

However, this month’s health and adult services scrutiny meeting at County Hall was told that that decision had been taken because it would be unfair to allow people to move in on a permanent basis when there was a chance the home could close or require major renovation.

CARE SERVICES UNDER A CLOUD

The care homes being reviewed are: Favordale (Colne), Grove House (Adlington), Milbanke (Kirkham), Thornton House (Thornton Cleveleys) and Woodlands (Clayton-le-Moors). They have a combined capacity to accommodate 229 people, roughly 45 at each location, with all bar Milbanke currently being at least 89 percent full.

Meanwhile, the operational day centres – Derby Centre (Ormskirk), Milbanke Day Centre (Kirkham, attached to Milbanke care home) and Vale View (Lancaster) – are at less than 60 percent capacity. Byron View (Colne, attached to Favordale) and Teal Close, (Thornton Cleveleys, attached to Thornton House) are not currently operating after what were intended as temporary closures initiated at the onset of the pandemic.