Woman, 106, fights eviction
A 106-year-old woman is fighting moves to evict her from her care home which is due to close under a cuts package drawn up by her local council.
Laura Donnelly
The Sunday Telegraph
Health Correspondent
Published: 9:01PM BST 26 Sep 2009
Louise Watts' plight personifies that of thousands of elderly people across
the UK facing forced removal from care homes by local authorities looking
to save money. Photo: ANDREW FOX
Louisa Watts, a great great grandmother, has been threatened with removal from the facility.
Her family argues that such a move would kill the widow, who is believed to be Britain's fifth oldest woman.
Mrs Watts' plight personifies that of thousands of elderly people across the UK facing forced removal from care homes by local authorities looking to save money.
Her case has been taken up by Yvonne Hossack, the campaigning solicitor who has prevented the closure of more than 80 care homes.
This week she will argue at the Court of Appeal that the health of Mrs Watts will be put at risk if she and other residents of Underhill House, in Bushbury, in Wolverhampton, are moved into new accommodation against their will.
Mrs Watts, who turned 106 earlier this month, said she was desperate not to be moved out of the home she has grown to love, since moving in four years ago, after her daughter died.
The former hospital cleaner said: "I love it here and I don't want to move – this is my home, the people here are like my family. It upsets me so much what the council is trying to do."
Her son Derek, 76, has organised a petition signed by more than 1,000 people pleading for the home to stay open.
He said: "My mum has worked hard all her life, to provide a home for her family. She has lived through two world wars. All we want is for her to be left to live her last years in piece. She is 106 years old. I'm afraid that if they move her, it will kill her."
Wolverhampton council says the home does not meet modern standards and that it would cost £2 million to make the necessary improvements, which it is not willing to pay for.
It wants to move the home's 10 remaining residents into accommodation in the area, and has offered residents a choice of alternative homes.
But Mrs Watts and fellow residents say there is nothing wrong with the conditions in which they live, and that they do not want to move, and risk being split up.
On Tuesday, the local authority will go to the Court of Appeal to attempt to lift an injunction won by Miss Hossack, blocking plans to move the residents out.
Miss Hossack's campaigning has made her a heroine for many pensioners but has made her enemies along the way.
Critics have accused her of operating as a political campaigner, not as a lawyer. Earlier this month, she faced being struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, accused of breaching rules on conduct.
Councils taken on by the solicitor had accused her of six breaches, including providing confidential information to third parties.
Ten days ago, she was told she was free to practice, after being found guilty on one charge, at the lowest level.
Miss Hossack has argued that closures of care homes housing vulnerable elderly people can threaten their health, and ultimately lives, citing evidence from one clinical psychiatrist who said length of remaining life could be reduced by one quarter.
She told The Sunday Telegraph: "The evidence is there that trauma of moving elderly people out of their homes can really damage their health, and lead to premature death. Saving money is not a good enough reason to do that."
Her bid to keep Mrs Watts' care home open was thrown out by a Birmingham judge earlier this month, but the solicitor won a last-ditch reprieve from the Court of Appeal, days later. This week the council will seek to have that injunction overturned.
Sarah Norman, Wolverhampton council director for adults and community, said: "We are confident that the case for the closure of Underhill House residential home has been proven."
She said demand for residential accommodation across Wolverhampton was falling since the council had increased investment in sheltered housing schemes, which allow those with some independence to receive support from wardens, while others were given help to live in their own homes. As a result, not all residential homes could be kept open, she said.
Miss Hossack and the pensioners argue such initiatives are worsening the plight of the most frail elderly, who still need care home places, but are being shunted around as homes close.
Miss Hossack, 53, whose campaigning work contributed to the end of her marriage, and brought her to the brink of bankruptcy, says she is determined to keep fighting for the rights of the vulnerable.
In a separate move, she has lodged papers in a test case to protect pensioners living in sheltered housing whose wardens are being removed in attempts to cut council spending.
Miss Hossack has served papers on Barnet council, in North London, which wants to remove live-in wardens from some complexes as part of its plans to develop an "easyJet" model of services, which strips free services down to a minimum, and cuts taxes.
The test case is also expected to consider plans by Bradford, Hackney, and Devon councils, who are among 20 local authorities whose plans to replace live-in staff with "floating" wardens – covering several homes at once – are being fought by residents, represented by Miss Hossack.
The solicitor argues that it is unfair for councils to alter the terms of tenancy agreements signed by residents who moved into sheltered housing, expecting that they would always have a warden on hand to keep them safe.
She said: "Thousands of people have given up their own homes that they lived in for years to move into sheltered housing in the expectation that there is someone there who will have a cup of tea with them and who will keep an eye on them as they become more frail.
"In some of these cases the councils are talking about replacing an onsite warden with a person who covers five developments at one time, with weekly visits, and a chord for people to pull in emergencies. I think that is wrong, and that it is a breach of contract. You cannot replace a person with an alarm cord."
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