Plan for five new care homes is shelved

A COUNCIL pledge to build five new care homes for the elderly was dropped yesterday despite emotional pleas and a demonstration by protesters.

Highland Council members voted 52-25 to drop the 30 million plan because it is not viable in the present climate.

The proposal to build the homes at Fort William, Grantown, Inverness, Muir of Ord and Tain dates back to 2007 under a previous administration. But officials and new council leaders had indicated that the cost of building the facilities would be higher than buying care home places for residents in the independent sector.

They stressed that the existing council-run homes would not close meantime, but that the saving would free capital funding for other priority projects, such as schools, roads and flood prevention.