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Stan Nash

THEY have devoted their lives to serving their country and contributing to their community.

Great grandmother Phyllis Berry, now 93, was part of an army of women who worked on Spitfires at Woolston's Supermarine factory during the war.

And great-grandfather Stan Nash, 89, served in the Royal Air Force in the Middle East.

Both were deserving of a peaceful and happy retirement - and both found it at the Birch Lawn care home in Sholing.

Until now.

The tranquillity of their twilight years has been shattered with news that their care home together with the Whitehaven Lodge, in Millbrook, could be closed as part of a major shake-up of the elderly care provision.

In total 62 elderly residents will lose their homes if the two centres are axed with the loss of 88 beds and 70 staff will lose their jobs.

For Phyllis and Stan the plans, announced by council staff, came as devastating shock.

Phyllis Berry and her son David

And at Whitehaven Lodge, in Millbrook, doctors had to be called to help calm distraught elderly residents who became ill when the news was broken.

Meanwhile double amputee Stan, who has diabetes, said he was both horrified and disgusted at the way the lives of the pensioners had been turned upside down.

He has been at the home for three years and said he would be writing to the Queen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown in protest.

He said: "We don't want the place closed. We are settled here and I have my friends here.

"We have served our country during the war and paid into the system all our lives and to now be told we are going to chucked out of our home is terrible. How can they do this?"

"I couldn't feel worse about the way we are being treated."

Phyllis' son David Berry said he was furious about the situation.

David said: "As a family we were all very pleased that my mother is at Birch Lawn.

"It is an excellent place and my mother considers it to be home.

"Before we found this care home we looked at a number of privately run places and frankly we were not impressed but when we chanced upon this centre we all immediately liked it.

"In the twilight of her life this is the last thing my mother needs. She has served the community for many years and now to be treated like this as part of a cost-cutting exercise is terrible - I think she is entitled to a little dignity.

"I just don't understand how they could do this to them."

Phyllis said: "I have had to move several times in recent years to go into sheltered housing and hospital and I was really pleased to find somewhere I liked that I could call home.

"I am too old now to consider moving again.

"I feel I have done my bit for my country and this is not the way I would have expected to be treated. The news has been upsetting."

Their comments come after the Daily Echo revealed that council bosses had been discussing the closure in secret meetings for several months.

The council claims that the proposal to close the care homes is due to a fall in demand of ten per cent with work being done to ensure that residents can be cared for in their own homes.

Council estimates seen by the Daily Echo say that the authority could net £1.5m by selling off the two sites as well as saving on operational costs and overheads.

The Daily Echo understands that if the plans are passed on September 29 it would take between 12 and 18 months to run down the care homes before remaining residents will be forced to move.

Protests are planned by Unison, Unite and the families of residents.

4:24pm Tuesday 2nd September 2008

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