A seafront hotel which became a “symbol of drugs and criminality” in Redcar has been shut by cops.

THE M.E.N. today lifts the lid on the human cost of a controversial shake-up in mental health care. William Scott, 49, from Blackley, Manchester, died of multiple stab wounds which his family say were self-inflicted after he lost the support worker he had relied on for eight years.

One of history’s original protesters has joined the fight to save Staffordshire’s council-run care homes. Lady Godiva, aka campaigner Simone Christian, rode topless on a mobility scooter outside the County Buildings in Stafford this morning to protest against the Changing Lives programme.

Social Services in Plymouth were not to blame for the death of baby Perrin Barlow five years ago, a coroner said today. Perrin died of natural causes to which neglect contributed, Nigel Meadows the coroner said.

Hundreds of vulnerable people will see their care package disappear or shrink from next February – but a county council chief says those in need will not be “cut adrift”.

{mosimage}County councillors have rubberstamped a decision to reduce the qualification level for adult social care from “moderate” to “substantial”, as part of a decision which will affect households across Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley.

And gateway’ services, signposting people to alternative provisions in the voluntary, faith and community sectors, will not be fully up and running until September 2008.

But Cllr. Chris Cheetham, Lancashire’s adult social care cabinet member, said: “We do recognise that people who are affected by these changes will need help.

“But we are going to help them through that process. This is not about saving money but it is about using money differently. We are not going to cut people adrift.

“In future we are not going to be seen as a major provider of care but we will be looking at providing services through the voluntary, faith and community sectors.”

Social services are keen to employ the services of organisations such as Help The Aged and Age Concern to cater for people’s care needs. The county council already contracts Age Concern to provide some OAP services in Preston.

A nurse was kicked out of the profession yesterday after she urged an assistant to put a brown paper bag over a dementia patient’s head and then took a photo with her mobile phone.

A serial sex attacker who remained free to terrorise women for four years because of a police DNA blunder was jailed for life yesterday.