星空传媒

Pendle, Burnley, Hyndburn, Chorley, Wyre, Preston and Ribble Valley councils held an emergency summit to discuss the closures, announced by Lancashire earlier this year (HT 28 February, page 8).

They called for a meeting with Lancashire and demanded a clear strategy be in place before it takes any action on the issue.

Burnley council leader Stuart Caddy said: "We want to meet the county and the Social Services Inspectorate and all relevant parties to discuss these proposals before a final decision is taken in September.

"If we don't get a response by 23 August, the district councils will consider a legal challenge to the county council's plans."

They "do not understand" the reform of the county's care services, Lancashire county council said.

Cabinet member for social services Chris Cheetham said the closures were not planned to save money, as the district councils claimed, but were prompted by a Social Services Inspectorate intervention because the county had the highest levels of elderly people in residential care in England.

Community-based services such as domiciliary care would be boosted, he said.

"We are going from a position where we had the highest level of people in what the government calls institutionalised residential care in the country down to national averages," Cheetham said.

"It's hardly revolutionary. It's unfortunate that some district councils don't understand this."