The local electorate has voted the Labour cabinet out.

Bye-bye Labour cabinet, hello incoming Conservative cabinet.

And an especially heartfelt bye-bye to Sean Fitzsimons you won't be missed, you really won't be missed.

But Sean, please do remember to scrutinise the result carefully and deliver a report then we'll all ignore it.

I'd like to say that we who opposed the care home early closure plan and fought against it can be justifiably proud of what we have done.

Without our efforts the homes would be shut, the residents dispersed and in who knows what state.

Staff would be moved on, some perhaps to unemployment.

We knew we were right to stick to our guns.

I'm afraid most of us think that Hannah Miller and Paula Shaw have made a dreadful mistake, a large error of judgement. Some of us think what has happened is unforgivable.

What could they say to moved-out residents and their relatives now?

It will be interesting to see the next letter from the council's solicitor to ours. Can you imagine what it might say?

What it should say is that the early closure decision of January is utterly quashed and that the council is moving back to its original policy of moving residents in groups with their carers when the New4Old facilities are ready in 2008.

Suddenly the wall of sustained and blanket opposition we faced looks like tissue paper.

It seems to me that the early closure decision has moved from cabinet policy through concerted opposition to the very door of the courts, and is now effectively in its coffin.

The lid is ready to be nailed down. We will be listening out for the sounds of the hammer hitting the nails as the new Conservative cabinet gets to work.

Chris Mellor
Coleby Court and Stroud Green Lodge Action Group
Barnfield Avenue,
Shirley