LABOUR councillors have deferred a decision on closing County Durham's remaining council-run residential care homes.
More than 100 carers, relatives and residents protested outside County Hall in Durham City yesterday as members arrived for a meeting of the ruling Labour group.
The council plans to shut 12 homes - 13 were closed a few years ago - in a move, it says, that will save 3m a year that could be spent on services to enable pensioners to live in their own homes.
The local government unions Unison and GMB say 300 carers' jobs could be at risk and that moving old folk to private homes will be upsetting.
Paul Thompson, joint Unison branch secretary, met council leader Ken Manton and council chief executive Mark Lloyd after the meeting and was told the group would reconvene on Wednesday.
"Councillor Manton said there was there was an awful lot of information to look at and they had deferred a decision."
The decision will formally be made by the council's cabinet on Monday February 27 but given Labour's overwhelming majority on the council, the decision will effectively be made in the Labour group.
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