Anger at care home offer rejection

Devastated relatives, including the son of 106-year-old Louisa Watts, today vowed to fight on after councillors voted by a narrow majority to turn down Trevor Beattie's offer to pay for Underhill House to stay open.

The advertising executive and former Wolverhampton Polytechnic graphic design student, who was behind the FCUK slogan for clothing giant French Connection, made the cash offer after being touched by the plight of elderly residents.

Angry relatives carrying a large Don't Kill Our Moms banner heckled councillors during last night's heated hour-long debate, with 50-year-old Mr Beattie's gesture turned down on the grounds it would save the Bushbury care home for only another year.

Derek Watts, 76, of Wednesfield, whose mother Louisa moved into Underhill House four years ago at the age of 102, shouted from the public gallery: "You're disgraceful."

Afterwards, he said: "These people have no humanity. My mother will be waiting to hear tonight's decision, and she will be really upset by it."

Mr Beattie made his offer after London's Court of Appeal last month threw out a bid for a judicial review into the council's decision in April to shut the home and relocate residents.

Fallings Park Labour councillor Steve Evans asked the meeting of the full council to reconsider its ruling.

But Councillor Les Pugh, cabinet member for adults, tabled an amended motion, which was carried 29-25, to decline the offer while thanking Mr Beattie "for the spirit in which it has been made."

He added the cabinet had authorised the home's closure as part of the council's savings programme and that the offer did not acknowledge future spending requirements.

Councillor Evans said: "It's not over. There is no justification for closing Underhill House when we have such a generous offer on the table to cover any financial differential the council incurs in keeping the care home open."

He and Mr Watts are travelling to London on Monday to present a petition to Downing Street as part of a national campaign to get the Government to review its care home policy.

They will also seek an interim order to allow the remaining nine residents of Underhill House to stay where they are while the campaign on their behalf continues. Mr Beattie is unavailable for comment.

The vote was split down party lines, with Labour members voting to accept the offer, and Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors ensuring it did not happen. Council leader Neville Patten called the Labour group hypocritical, accusing them of closing eight similar homes during their term in power.

Another problem with the offer was that it had been made via solicitors and not directly by Mr Beattie himself.

He added: "Coming from a third party, it could not be considered."

Among devastated relatives was Walsall Council senior bereavement officer David Husbands, of Sutton Coldfield, whose 79-year-old mother Eileen is in Underhill House.

He said: "We are really disappointed. It feels like the council has targeted the elderly because they cannot answer back."