A CENTENARIAN and women in their 90s were among demonstrators protesting at a council's headquarters yesterday aginst plans to close 12 residential care homes.

Jane Anne "Jenny'' Wren, who was 100 in November, was among residents and carers from the Durham County Council-run Hackworth House, Shildon, who went to County Hall, in Durham, to lobby a meeting of the council's ruling Labour group.

The group, which has a big majority on the council, was due to decide whether to press ahead with officers' proposals to implement the second phase of a closure plan that would leave all residential care to the private sector.

Mrs Wren, in a wheelchair, said she and fellow residents received good care at the home and were worried about the prospect of moving.

"I don't want to move. I want to stop where I am. We have nice girls looking after us. We don't want it closing, please. We don't want to move. We are all right in here."

Terry Scarr, an official of the GMB union, said up to 300 care workers could lose their jobs if the plan goes ahead.

"We know for a fact that our members care about the residents. The residents get a lot better service in our homes. It has been proved over and over that the private sector cannot give the service we can.

"We feel the homes should be kept open and the profit side shouldn't come into it. If the council does press ahead, the GMB will fight it all the way.''

The homes facing closure are: Grampain House, Peterlee; Lynwood House, Lanchester; Mendip House, Chester-le-Street; Feryemount, Ferryhill; East Green, West Auckland; Shafto House, Newton Aycliffe; Newton House, Stanhope; Hackworth House, Shildon; Cheveley House, Belmont, Durham City; Manor House, Annfield Plain; Glendale House, Blackhall; Stanfield House, Stanley.

A petition containing 1,600 signatures from people in Weardale was handed in protesting against the threat to the area's only care home, Newtown House, in Stanhope.

Weardale's Independent councillor, John Shuttleworth, said: "This shows the strength of feeling that there is - not just in Weardale, but across the county. Hopefully, the Labour group will have got the message.''

Paul Thompson, joint branch secretary of the council's Unison branch, said he was pleased at the turnout of more than 100 people and said further demonstrations could be staged.

"I hope it has made an impression. Some of the councillors going in sounded supportive, but I know what happens in the Labour group. They come under pressure to adopt the preferred option of the lead officers and the leading members of the group."

After the group meeting, held in private, council leader Ken Manton told Mr Thompson that a decision had been deferred until Wednesday.

"He said there was more information submitted on this than any other issue," said Mr Thompson.

The council says closure will save £3m that could be invested in helping old people live independently in their own homes.

Frances Thomason, 93, who lives in Mendip House, Chester-le-Street, said of her home: "It's lovely. I dread to think what would happen if I had to move. I daren't think of it. It's home to me."

On a little note she had written, she said: "I would like the powers that be to have second thoughts on the closure. All we want is to live in peace with the care we receive. The management and staff are very caring and we love them all."

School PE teacher Sue Anderton, of Carrville, Durham, is worried what will happen to her mother Ivy, 91, who is blind and deaf and lost an arm in a mill accident years ago, if Cheveley House, in Belmont, Durham closes.

"My mum said she wanted to live independently in her own home when she was 85, but then she got flu and couldn't do it. Suddenly, there comes a day when old people cannot care for themselves."