No Guarantees Of Cash For Residents Of Care Homes

Cash made from the revamp of Camden’s elderly care homes might not be put back into caring for pensioners, according to a council chief. At a recent meeting pensioners and disabled residents quizzed Cllr Martin Davies on plans to close all four of Camden’s care homes and replace them with two new buildings.

The consultation on the scheme closes tomorrow and could see management of the homes to pass into the hands of private companies. However, Cllr Davies refused to say if any profits left over from the sale of properties would be used for elderly care.

He said: “I can’t guarantee anything at all but I will be fighting to see it reinvested in adult social care. I have to negotiate with my executive colleagues and I will make sure I can do all I can to keep it in the department.”

Camden’s four homes – Branch Hill, St. Margaret’s, Wellesley Road and Ingestre Road – will be closed to make way for two new properties in Maitland Park and Crogsland Road.

The project will include spaces for 10 more people, extra sheltered housing and a scheme which provides the elderly with their own flats and 24 hour help if needed.

The consultation asks residents whether they want the housing to be run by the council, by a private company or non-for-profit company. Another part of the scheme will be the closure of the Charlie Ratchford Centre and the rebuilding of a centre across the road next to Haverstock school.

However, critics said this would not work for elderly people. Mick Farrant, chairman of the Queen’s Crescent Community Centre, said: “That talk, rather than decrease my fears, made them worse. The land next to the school is much smaller and much less valuable because people are less likely to want to buy homes next to a playground.

“It makes you think they want to release money back into the adult social care department. I read these scandals about residential homes and they are all privately run. If the local authority runs it scrutiny is much tighter.”

The scheme has particularly angered residents and staff at the Wellesley Road centre in Kentish Town. Residents won a High Court bid to stay at the home when the Camden’s previous administration wanted to close the site for modernisation. They won on the basis that they were promised a bed for life in the building when they first moved in.

Ann Caefael, involved in the original Wellesley Road campaign, said: “There are only two advocates explaining this to people and this is a lot of work to speak to 188 residents, many of whom have dementia.”

Cllr Davies said the consultation date would be extended for residents of the homes who were yet to comment.