A LEADING campaigner in the fight to save 35 Lancashire County Council care homes from closure today unveiled his next plan of attack and said: "It doesn't end with the march."

Burnley's Mayor-elect Coun Gordon Birtwistle, who led more than 600 people in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph protest march through Burnley on Saturday, is planning to hold mass pickets outside each care home and organise a huge petition in a bid to halt the plans.

He said: "I am meeting on Friday afternoon with a group of people who are going to co-ordinate it.

"We are going to hold mass pickets outside each home on certain days.

"We are going to get 100 people to form a ring around a home for two or three hours at a time.

"It doesn't end with the march. We might even picket county council offices. We are also proposing putting a stall in the town centre to get 100 people to each sign a letter to post to county hall.

"We've still got a few weeks to go before they make a decision."

But Coun Birtwistle is concerned that if he wins the vote at next month's council elections and becomes mayor he may not be able to publicly back the campaign to stop Lancashire County Council's proposed closure of 35 out of 48 care homes in East Lancashire.

He explained: "I don't think I will be able to do anything political. But people have said I should carry on."

Coun Birtwistle also repeated his disappointment that county councillors invited to join the march from Bank Hall to St James's Street, Burnley, failed to turn up while hundreds of people including elderly campaigners and youngsters with their families completed the route.

"There are two county councillors standing for local elections in Burnley this time and neither of them were there," he said.

Those who did turn up included Pendle MP Gordon Prentice, Burnley MP Peter Pike, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans, Burnley council leader Stuart Caddy and Kevin Young, Editor of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

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