TWO south Cumbrian care homes will close after councillors approved plans for their closure.

Combe House on Walney and Marsh House in Ulverston will close, while in Copeland, four homes will shut and a new £6m facility will open on the former Sekers factory site in Hensingham, Whitehaven.

Through the plans, there will be 20 fewer beds in Furness overall.

In Copeland, there will be net reduction of 80 beds provided by the council’s social care arm – Cumbria Care, and South Lakeland will see a reduction of 28 beds.

Council bosses claim fewer people will need to stay in nursing and care homes as more and more retirees will instead be offered 'preventative' support packages allowing them to continue living independently in their own properties.

The plans were approved by the council’s cabinet at a meeting in Carlisle yesterday.

Barrow already has a new 60-bed care home called Parkview Gardens.

It opened last month and cost £7m. Councillors watched a video of Parkview Gardens at the meeting which showed how happy residents and staff are with the new facility.

The authority is set to complete a £900,000 refurbishment of the 40-bed Elmhurst, in Ulverston.

Before yesterday’s meeting, members of the Socialist Party protested outside.

Brent Kennedy, branch secretary, handed over a 1,300-signature petition to the council.

He said: "We are not against plans to build new care homes in Carlisle and Copeland.

"The council are going to keep 120 care home beds and get rid of 137. That's going to cause problems for old people, their carers and their families and it's also going to lead to bed blocking at the hospital.

"We welcome the new buildings though."

The council says the decision marked the “next step in its bold journey” to modernise care and improve its care facilities.

Councillor Beth Furneaux, the county council's cabinet member for health and care services, said: “I would like to say thank you to the people who took part in our consultation, which included those in residential care, their families and the public.

“I am proud to be part of council that is committed to providing the very best care for those who need it, investing over £20m into state of the art care homes for the people of Cumbria.

She added: “This ambition to invest and improve is now starting to be realised, with today’s decision and of course the fact that the first of our new care homes, Parkview Gardens in Barrow, has actually now opened its doors with its first residents moving in in the last week or so.

“How we deliver care is a top priority for the council as people are living longer and their expectations of care are changing.”

The £12m investment required to build the new care homes was approved by the council a year ago.