Hollins View care home will close in December after councillors upheld the decision to axe respite care.
Cheshire East Council’s health and adult social care scrutiny committee backed proposals to transfer the service to private care homes.
The decision taken at a meeting on Friday came after impassioned pleas from carers and campaigners including Jack Spencer, 92, who spoke on behalf of 120 members at Macclesfield United Reformed Church.
He said: “Over past years Hollins View has actually been our lifeline. From the heart I’m saying to you, please, keep Hollins View open until the Caring Together Planning comes to fruition.”
Campaigners had hoped they had saved the home from closure last December after council bosses performed a u-turn on their previous plans to move respite service out of Hollins View following a Macclesfield Express campaign.
But in June the cabinet voted to end respite care at Hollins View and Lincoln House in Crewe at the end of December, to save the council £1.3m per year.
Under the plans respite care for sufferers of dementia and long term-illness would instead be provided by the independent sector, including private care homes.
The Labour group challenged the decision which failed with the five Conservative councillors – committee chairman coun Joss Saunders, vice-chairman coun Liz Wardlaw, coun Rhoda Bailey, coun Beverley Dooley and coun Gill Merry – voting to uphold proposals. Three councillors – coun Arthur Moran (Ind), coun Damian Bailey (Lab) and coun Laura Jeuda (Lab) voted against the proposal.
However the committee did call for a progress report to be given in November and six monthly reviews of the ‘effectiveness of this decision’ from next June.
Before the meeting the council came under fire for refusing to web-stream the discussions for those who couldn’t attend.
The closure plan is expected to be rubber stamped at the next full council meeting, which is currently scheduled for October 22.
Speaking after the meeting Morven Sowerbutts, a member of the campaign group to keep Hollins View open, said: “We are disappointed. We hoped the scrutiny committee would be non-party political but in our view didn’t performs its function. We will now meet and decide what to do next.”
