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Help stop care home from closing

Norwich Evening News, May 6, 2003

The man behind a campaign to save a Norfolk residential home from closure today issued a rallying cry to the country's political leaders to support him.

John Philp penned letters to both Prime Minister Tony Blair and Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith asking them to intervene in his fight to save Springdale Residential Home in Brundall.

He has also written to every Norfolk MP inviting them to a meeting tomorrow to discuss what the future holds for Springdale.

Norfolk County Council has earmarked the home for closure, with its elderly residents set to be moved into a housing with care scheme in Sprowston.

The authority is set to make a decision on whether to close it as part of a cost cutting measure on May 19.

But Mr Philp, who heads the Save our Springdale campaign (SOS), believes doing so would cause unnecessary disruption to frail pensioners, including many who have spent their entire lives in Brundall.

"I think it would be very disruptive to their quality of life," said Mr Philp, who believes building work close to the housing with care scheme in White Woman Lane would also upset residents.

"You have to see the site to believe it. There is heavy machinery and noise and vibrations."

He said no reply had been received from Mr Blair's office, but that Mr Duncan-Smith had written back to say he could not meddle in the business of other constituencies.

He is conducting tomorrow's meeting with relatives at the site of the housing with care scheme to highlight the effects building work might have on the lives of residents.

Springdale was originally short-listed for closure because the county council said it could not afford upgrades demanded in the National Care Standards Act.

But the Government axed the act under intense public pressure triggered by the Evening News' story of 108-year-old Alice Knight, who starved herself to death after her Flordon House home in Norwich was forced to shut under the rules.

Mr Philp said: "The only reason the council has to close the home now is a financial one.

"They say the care standards act has been downgraded, but the issues relating to the sizes of rooms have been axed."

Tomorrow's meeting begins at 10am.


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