Families fight care home sale

Families of ousted residents of a former Catholic care home have launched a campaign to persuade the nuns who own it to sell it to another care provider. 

The 57-room Hope Residential and Nursing Care Home in Cambridge was closed on 31 July after the owners, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux (HFB), said they could not afford the structural changes needed to bring it up to modern standards.

Now a campaign group run by families of former residents, Keep the Hope Cambridge, has called on the sisters not to sell the property for a housing plot.

Christina Leadlay, a member of the group, said that the home had eased pressure on the local NHS hospital.

“There is a national shortage of good quality care places, and an increased need for them. Surely it is time for the government to introduce measures to prevent care home providers closing good homes against the will of their residents?” she said.

The site overlooks the Botanical Gardens and is within walking distance of the city centre. Tony Snelling, who is managing the sale for chartered surveyors, Stanley Hicks, said that nearly 40 offers were received, quite a few of which were residential and some were in health care.
Sr Gemma Corbett said this week that the order would look at all the options.