FEARS of bed-poaching by local authorities were raised during a discussion on Darlington's new residential and nursing homes.

Coun Heather Scott told a special meeting of the social services scrutiny committee on Tuesday that members needed to know the costs and implications of proposed purchasing arrangements for residential care in the future.

She was commenting on a report approved by cabinet in early September, which Coun Eric Roberts called back for discussion. It said the council had advertised for interested residential and nursing home developers in 2001 and the first of its six new homes opened in August.

They would be subject to the same fee levels as the remainder of the market and discussions had begun on a formula for the future.

Currently the cost was £295 a week for residential and £310 a week for nursing care, which cost social services £3,758,131 last year.

Coun Scott said the private sector was an issue which could explode in their faces in future if the council was not careful, because of all the new providers coming in since the authority closed its own homes.

She believed Darlington was one of the lower paying authorities, adding: "How do we stand in Darlington if other local authorities block book the beds we have in our homes.

"You can't blame the providers for going down that road if they can get better prices from others. Could other authorities in the region pose a threat to Darlington if they are under capacity in their own areas? We have been very pro-active here."

Coun Bill Dixon, social services cabinet member, replied: "It is probably our biggest defence that people have the choice, and should have, to live in the area where they have spent their lives. I think local authorities would have a struggle to move them."

He had not met the independent sector for about 12 months, although there were on-going negotiations over contracts.

"It is very difficult to talk about where we go in future when people only want to talk about current fees," he added.