AFTER months of worry about what their future holds, residents of two care homes in Southampton this week received the news they were dreading.

Council chiefs announced they were launching a fresh bid to close the homes, four months after the threat of court action forced the authority to put its plans on hold and consider the health consequences of moving so many elderly residents.

As Tory councillors mull over whether they will agree to give the go ahead on Monday, elderly residents have warned the upheaval could kill them.

Joseph Watts, 83, moved from his Sholing home into Birch Lawn care home 16 months ago after his wife died because he couldn’t manage a big house on his own.

The former labourer, who helped build Southampton’s Thornhill estate, and brought up three foster children alongside his own three daughters, has no doubt what a move could mean for him.

“It would be like rebuilding my life again. I’ve had enough ups and downs. I think it would kill me – I think I’d give up.”

Mr Watts said his Christian faith has helped him prepare for the worst but insisted if councillors backed the closure they would be putting “another nail in my coffin”.

He said he still fails to understand why the home needs to close.

Southampton City Council claims there is a falling demand for residential care in the city and it would save about £500,000 if it bought care from the private sector. The council could also net £1.5m from the sale of the sites, although it says it has no plans to do that.

Sitting in his room at the 33-bed Birch Lawn where 18 permanent residents remain, Mr Watts said: “When I came here it was a home from home.

“I cannot see any place is going to be better than this.

“The girls and staff who work here can’t do too much for you.

They’re excellent.

“There’s a lovely community spirit here. The private home I stayed in before was a good home but it didn’t have that atmosphere.”

“They’re not taking into account what residents are saying.”

The closure decision is also a daunting prospect for 96-yearold Les Proctor, and one that has been playing on his mind.

The former aircraft engineer, who lived in Shirley most of his life, helped build Spitfires in Woolston during the Second World War. He worked nights in the bombed out factory under makeshift roofing.

“At one time we had to get 30 Spitfires out in six weeks,” he recalls.

“We worked seven nights a week, 12 hours a day.”

However, now deaf and blind, the great-grandfather joked: “All I do now is sleep and eat.”

Mr Proctor, who has been at Birch Lawn for two and a half years, said: “I don’t want to move. If I’ve got to move from here I don’t’ know what could happen to me. I’m 96 now.

“If I’ve got to go somewhere else and start again – I don’t know if I’m capable of that.

“It worries me if I have to go into another home.

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As it gets close it gets me worried. It keeps flashing up. I just cannot think what’s going to happen.”

He added: “It’s too good a place to shut it down. I cannot fault it in any way.”

“They have such good care staff. They really do care. They’re a lovely bunch of girls.”

Conservative councillors gave the go ahead to shut the 55-bed Whitehaven Lodge and 33-bed Birch Lawn homes in October.

But the closures were suspended in January after a solicitor hired by relatives of the residents applied for a judicial review of the decision, claiming it was unlawful because it failed to consider the health effect of moving residents.

Studies elsewhere have shown a rise in deaths during home closures.

After carrying out an “audit” of residents’ needs, the council is now confident a managed move will cause “no real or imminent risk to health or life” and it can press ahead with closures – and defend any legal action.

A decision will be made on Monday.