Harold Hill: Care homes to be closed soon

Westmarsh Lodge, Neave Crescent and David Crompton Lodge, Gooshays Drive - homes for people with learning difficulties - are to close 'as soon as possible' because Havering Council can't afford to bring them up to the required new standards .

Residents will temporarily move into The Grange, Faringdon Avenue, a care home for 37 elderly people, which itself faces the axe by 2003.

But Havering Council insists it will not face an accommodation crisis for residents because of an abundance of beds in the private sector, whose relatively high standards the council is striving to match.

The decision to close some homes, to release funds to develop others in Havering, also acknowledges accommodation standards proposed by the Department of Health. Standards will, in future, require homes to provide larger rooms with en suite facilities.

Westmarsh and David Crompton Lodge may yet exist as resource centres for the elderly and people with learning disabilities if the council can encourage independent funders to redevelop them.

Cllr Ann Roberts said: "We are quite fortunate in Havering that there are a number of really good homes in the private sector. I have been assured there will be capacity for the residents who are moved out.

"All proposals are subject to consultations with residents and the homes themselves next month."

Cllr Margaret Latham, strategic policy chairman, said: "We have decided to meet the very stringent registration standards being set by the Government, which includes larger room sizes and en suite facilities.

"I regard these improvements as essential to provide care to modern standards. Indeed this should be a basic right for frail and vulnerable people who need to live residentially.

"We are seeking to provide care to the standards found in the best care homes, specialist care which meets the complex needs our residents have."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.