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Woodston care home residents' joy at news of reprieve
Vulnerable residents of an under-threat care home in Southview, Woodston are today celebrating after Peterborough City Council suspended a controversial decision to close it.
Vulnerable residents of an under-threat care home in Southview, Woodston are today celebrating after Peterborough City Council suspended a controversial decision to close it.Residents had faced months of anxiety as they fought to protect their shared house which had provided some of them with a safe and secure haven for more than 19 years.
The drama began when the Supporting People Commissioners, which funded the project to the tune of 67,000 a year, told the stunned residents that the home would shut in September.
Residents then started a petition, and their plight was highlighted in The Evening Telegraph as they outlined their fears for the future.
Related:
Care home residents fight closure plan, 28 March 2009.
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But as the residents – who had nervously gathered in their shared living room to learn their fate – finally heard the words they had been desperate to hear – "you're staying" – their worried faces broke out into smiles of joy.
Longest-standing resident Malcolm Brown (61), who has lived there for 19 years, said he did not know when councillors Fran Benton, Matthew Lee and Graham Murphy arrived to deliver the news which way the decision would go.
He said: "It's great news. I am so happy and relieved.
"I had no idea what they would say, but it's just nice to know I can stay here."
Another resident, Matthew Kirton, had convinced himself it was going to be bad news.
He said: "I was really nervous when they arrived, but I was so chuffed when they said we could stay.
"I am so relieved.
"We can now get on with our lives."
The residents had been granted a glimmer of hope after Cllr Benton, Cllr Murphy and Cllr Lee demanded the decision – which was based on the fact that the home did not have en-suite bathrooms – be reversed under the Disability Discrimination Act.
And in an extraordinary meeting held this week, the commission agreed the decision to withdraw funding had been a mistake, and granted the home a reprieve until March 2010.
Cllr Benton said she was delighted for the residents.
She said: "They have been through such a lot over the last few months.
"I am really please they have finally had a voice and will now get to have a say in their own future, as they were not properly listened to before."
And Cllr Lee agreed that seeing the smiles on residents' faces made it all worthwhile.
Today, Alan Lewin, chief executive of Axiom Housing Association, which owns and manages the home, pledged to work with residents, Peterborough City Council and Supporting People Commissioning to find a long-term solution.
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