Home campaigners face waiting game

Campaigners and residents of a care home earmarked for closure feel they have done all they can to stop its closure, and can only now anxiously await the results of the public questionnaires.

Today is the final day of the consultation period before Nottinghamshire County Council makes a decision on the future of Bishops Court, Boughton, and the other seven care homes in the county earmarked for possible closure.

The county council’s cabinet will make the decision in March.

An action group set up to campaign against the closure of Bishops Court has sent letters to the Queen, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Tory leader David Cameron to campaign against the possible closure.

They have also protested outside the county council offices and collected 8,500 signatures —the largest amount of signatures of any other petitions against the closure of the other care homes listed for possible closure.

Mrs Madeleine Meakin, an action group member, said: “We are really grateful for the support of everybody. We have had a lot of support from the community .”

“I am quite hopeful that we have done enough to be made a special case. There is nothing more that we can do now — we have done what we can.”

She said that the group were impressed that over 100 people, both young and old, had written to the council to express their concerns.

This included her grandson, Jake Bradley (14) of The Heathers, Boughton, who visits his great-grandmother, Mrs Dorothy Meakin (89) in Bishops Court most days.

He wrote to all the county councillors that attended a meeting about Bishops Court explaining why it should not close.

Mrs Meakin, of Robin Hood Avenue, Edwinstowe, said residents remained anxious about their future.

She said: “Although I am getting good vibes from councillors, we cannot go around the home saying that it will not shut and until I can, I won’t be happy.

“It will be an anxious couple of months.”

Mr Ben Wells, the chairman for Ollerton and Boughton Town Council, hoped the group would be successful.

He said: “I think they have done a tremendous job. Nobody could have tried any harder to ensure that this important facility in Ollerton and Boughton keeps going ahead.”