SUPPORT is growing for the campaign to protect the future of the threatened Leadon Bank care home in Ledbury.

The town council has given its formal backing to Coun Spencer Lane, who is pressing for all 43 residents to be allowed to remain where they are.

Local people have also posted messages of support on a Leadon Bank website set up by Coun Lane.

Town councillors agreed to draft a letter urging the county council to consider other options to closure, such as privatisation or changing the role of the home so that it meets a specialist need.

Herefordshire Council says it will be reviewing the options for all its seven homes, including Froome Bank in Bromyard, but that keeping them as council-run facilities is not possible as the costs are higher than in the private sector.

But Mayor Clive Jupp questioned why the option of leaving Leadon Bank as it is had not been included as one of the review possibilities.

He said: "To take that off the table was wrong."

Ledbury Town Council believes that even if Leadon Bank is to close the present residents should be allowed to live out their days there in peace if they choose, before closure takes place.

Coun Jupp said: "It should be done in such a manner that it doesn't disturb the present residents."

Both Coun Lane and Coun Bob Wreford declared an interest and abstained from voting on the issue during last week's meeting, as each has a relative in Leadon Bank.

Bill Wiggin, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the Leominster constituency, visited Leadon Bank shortly after the possible closure plan was announced and spoke afterwards to Richard Humphries, the the county council's director of social services and housing.