CAMPAIGNERS took life-sized cardboard cut-outs of residents facing eviction from two council care homes to Downing Street in a protest against their closures.
Officials refused to allow them inside Number 10, but relatives delivered a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling for a change in the law which allows councils to sell off homes to help them fill budget shortfalls.
A bid to prevent the closure of Southampton’s Whitehaven Lodge and Birch Lawn failed in the Court of Appeal last week.
Campaigning lawyer Yvonne Hossack argued that Southampton City Council’s decision breached residents’ human rights and could cut short their lives.
David Berry called on the council to keep Birch Lawn in Sholing open as a compromise, and said that relatives were planning an appeal to Europe.
The council claims that there is a falling demand for residential care in the city and it can save about £500,000 a year using cheaper private firms. The closures will result in the loss of 31 jobs.
The 29 remaining permanent residents, including 101-year-old Emily Turner, will now be helped to find new homes.
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