Row over future of care homes descends into blame game

Finger-pointing continues at County Hall

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

Today we return to an issue we have been across since the Autumn - the potential closure and now secure future of five care homes in Lancashire.

Reform UK, who lead Lancashire County Council who set out a timetable for potential closure and informed the homes themselves of it, say the opposition are to blame for ‘scaremongering’ over the issue.

The opposition say this is ‘disingenuous’ given who started the review.

As the blame game begins, we dive into what we know about the decision to save the care homes.

Lancashire briefing

🏠 Residents facing problems and costly repairs at a half-built housing estate near Lancaster are again calling on a developer to fix things and for more action by authorities. People at St Michael’s Gardens, Cockerham, say problems include faulty plumbing, heating and electricity, unfinished paths and roads, and no street lights. And they haven’t been able to contact the developers. The estate’s history goes back to 2019 and Lancaster City Council took enforcement steps in 2024 and 2025 against developer Pleasington Homes Ltd, telling the company to sort the problems. A large sign with accusations against the council appeared there recently but has since been taken down. The sign claimed the housing site’s ‘abandoned’ look was the fault of the council, which it accused of being ‘incompetent, corrupt or racist’. However, a spokesperson for Lancaster City Council says it has already made ‘considerable efforts’ to work with the developer including on the number of affordable homes expected there. It has also taken enforcement action to tackle problems and is willing to consider changes to the estate plan, if changes can be justified.

🚌 Business leaders have called for the cash raised from ‘bus gate’ fines issued in Preston to stay in the city – and be spent on improving its roads. The notorious bus-only zones can rake in huge sums for Lancashire County Council – with the most recently-introduced restriction, on Corporation Street, generating £3.3m in the space of just 18 months. The authority says it invests the proceeds from the penalty charge notices (PCNs) handed out to motorists – for going beyond the points that prohibited vehicles must not pass – in maintaining and upgrading the highway network. However, that money can be used on improvement projects anywhere in the county council’s patch – and across any of the 4,600 miles of road for which it is responsible.

🙏🏻 The former leader of Hyndburn Council Marlene Haworth has died aged 82. The St Oswald’s ward Conservative passed away in the Royal Blackburn Hospital on Wednesday night after becoming ill at home where she was recovering from cancer surgery. She leaves a husband Jim. Her successors as leader of Hyndburn Council Cllr Munsif Dad and its Conservative group leader Cllr Zak Khan have paid tribute to her and her 19 years on the authority. The flags on Accrington Town Hall have been flown at half-mast as a mark of respect for the borough’s first female political boss.

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Row over future of care homes descends into blame game

Cllr Stephen Atkinson at Thursday’s cabinet meeting

By Luke Beardsworth and Paul Faulkner

A row over the future of care homes has descended into debate over exactly who is to blame for causing ‘distress’ to staff, residents and families most affected by the County Hall process.

Stephen Atkinson, leader of Reform-led Lancashire County Council, said that he is ‘disgusted’ by opposition members who he says have ‘politicised’ the issue.

This is despite it being his party who started the review and spent several months not taking the opportunity to guarantee the future of the care homes.

The review process began in October after the premises were deemed to be in “significantly poor condition” – prompting concerns about the safety and quality of the services.

A two-month public consultation followed, during which campaigns sprang up to ‘save’ the homes – Favordale (Colne), Grove House (Adlington), Milbanke (Kirkham), Thornton House (Thornton-Cleveleys) and Woodlands (Clayton-le-Moors) – while the county council repeatedly stressed no conclusions had been reached about what should happen to any of them.

After receiving 1,600 consultation responses, County Hall said it would be delaying a final decision – which had been due this month – until the spring in order to allow more time for the public’s views to be properly considered.

However, a fortnight ago, the ruling Reform group announced, in a party capacity, that it planned to invest in the facilities to guarantee “continued stability and comfort for residents…for the years to come”.

The announcement came during a Budget and Finance Scrutiny Committee on 21 January where at least one elected Reform UK member could be seen grinning and pointing at his phone as questions were asked about the place of care homes within the budget.

A series of videos were posted where opposition leaders were slammed for the alleged ‘lies’ they had spread in campaigning on the issue of the future of the care homes.

This is despite Reform UK conceding in the Autumn that closure was a possibility for the sites and that initial document setting out a timetable for a ‘potential closure’ plan.

And Cllr Kim Snape, who represents Labour for Chorley Rural East at Lancashire County Council, said on a number of occasions she had been rebuffed in her efforts to be shown evidence that Woodlands in Clayton-le-Moors was in ‘significantly poor condition’.

The belief among opposition councillors and campaigners is that Reform UK responded not to the ‘distress’ the debate around the process was causing, but instead to a high profile protest that saw hundreds gather in Preston on 17 January.

The Lancashire Lead was told that Reform UK met on 18 January to discuss a response and, as a party, took the decision not to close the care homes.

The videos, posted on 21 January, were recorded at County Hall on 20 January and officers at Lancashire County Council were not aware they were happening.