A FURTHER 24 elderly residents have been told to up sticks and move after another care home bit the dust.

Wilberforce Residential Home, in Pocklington, is to close at the end of November, the second local home in a month to announce it is to shut.

Earlier this month, the Evening Press reported how Blair Atholl Nursing Home, in Haxby, will close on November 17, leaving about 26 residents stranded.

We also revealed that seriously ill residents at York Rise Nursing Home, in York, have also been told to find somewhere else to live, because bosses can no longer guarantee round-the-clock care.

Managers at Blair Atholl claim the expense of upgrading to meet tough new Government standards on physical appearance has been the reason for the closure decision.

Now Wilberforce Residential Home proprietor Bernard Kennedy is the latest to claim the costs of upgrading outweigh the benefits of staying open.

Social services chiefs at East Riding of Yorkshire Council have been called in to help find new accommodation for Wilberforce's residents.

Mr Kennedy said in a statement: "Twenty four residents will have to move to other accommodation and several staff will lose their jobs.

"We are very sad that the lodge must close after so many successful years but the costs associated with the Government's introduction of The Care Standards Act has made it impossible to make ends meet.

"Over the last two years, it has been it has become more and more difficult to reward and train good carers due to inadequate public funding."

But Coun George McManus, a Pocklington town councillor and chairman of East Riding Labour Party, said: "The implications of this decision are wide-ranging.

"It annoys me when the Government is blamed for an act which is not even going to be enforced until April 2007.

"I think the care situation will only get worse."

Updated: 08:52 Wednesday, October 31, 2001