Yesterday, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet agreed to close eight residential care homes.

My Lib Dem colleagues and I have criticised the move which leaves the future of around 150 vulnerable residents in the balance with the risk they may end up being placed in accommodation further away from their family and paying more for the services they receive.

Even though the majority of responses to a public consultation favoured the option to modernise and refurbish the care homes, the County Council decided to go ahead with a programme to close the homes before the end of 2024.

The Council will now start work on closing eight care homes, with 433 residential places in total, in Ash, Bookham, Englefield Green, Horley, Lingfield, Merstham, Staines-upon-Thames and Woking – the later being on Coley Avenue in the Mount Hermon area.

The Lib Dems and I question how seriously the Council has taken the public consultation on closing these care homes, as the majority held view was ignored. The Council had already assumed it would save £10.1 million over the next three years by closing them, the decision seemed to have been made beforehand.

Most important issue is the real-world impact on the vulnerable residents who will have to move from their home. I was glad to hear that the aim was that they would only have to move once to find a suitable, alternative facility, however it remains to be seen what the ultimate cost will be in terms of the financial and emotional impact.

If the care homes do close, ideally we would like to see the sites put to use for delivering other Council or NHS services but if not, we are concerned about the Council’s record on handling land and property issues with a number of buildings being left empty for long periods.