EVERYONE with a heart and conscience was surely left stunned and angry with the Somerset Care decision to close The Priory care home in Tetbury, effectively evicting 16 people and losing the jobs of many more local people.

Some of the residents are so old and frail that even the thought of moving could have tragic consequences.

I attended the meeting where directors announced the closure of the home, which came as a total surprise.

The reasons they gave held no credence, in my opinion, and are as follows: Firstly, they will soon have to start paying the living wage.

Should this not be already in place and would it not be the same for all their other staff in the other homes?

Secondly, they are making a loss. Sounds plausible until you look at the facts. They had only 16 beds occupied out of 23 and people had been turned away.

Thirdly, Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) does not pay a reasonable rate for residents. If this is true, many other homes are at risk. Is GCC cold and out of touch, or are care homes greedy and in touch?

If you have a business and it is running into problems you either sell it as a going concern or see if anyone else would like to take it over.

None of these options were even considered.

Another possibility was to approach the people and staff and see about setting up a cooperative or even a trustbut he company did not even tell the management what they were planning.

After this announcement I went to see the owners of The Priory, the National Benevolent Charity, who informed me that they would be selling the building as a nursing home, although if a feasible rescue plan was put forward they would look favourably towards it.

I feel that government and councils should start to look at safeguarding our people in residential/care/nursing homes. We are very good at assisting other areas and regions; perhaps now is the time to look at our own back yards.

Please give these vulnerable people a voice and the honour and dignity that they have earned by writing to the relevant bodies, councillors and MPs. Let’s take greed out of care and get back to basics.

Even if profits, in money terms, would be marginal, in human spirit it would be incalculable. This is the first shot in what I view as a generation war. Whose side are you on?

KEVIN PAINTER

Tetbury