LANCASHIRE County Council seems hell-bent on closing or selling off the majority of its care homes for the elderly, come what may.

Barnoldswick's Cravenside Home has been reprieved, at least for the next four years, but it should never have been on the county's hit list of 35 care homes threatened with closure in the first place.

Built only a decade ago, it is the most modern, purpose-built home of its type in the county, requiring only a few thousand pounds spent on improvements to bring it up to the very latest standards.

If Cravenside had been at the heart of the county instead of at its very edge, would it still have been on the hit list?

In other cases, where people are cared for in crumbling Victorian premises in constant need of repairs and improvements, it's easy to understand the county council's position. Essentially it said it could not afford to bring those premises up to new, stringent standards announced by the Government. Hence its proposals to close or sell off 35 of its 48 care homes.

But anti-closure rallies, action groups, petitions and East Lancashire MPs publicly savaged the plans. Even Prime Minister Tony Blair hinted at his disapproval during a visit to the region.

Second, the Government significantly relaxed its stance. As soon as it realised homes across the country would be unable to meet the new standards and forced to close, it began a rethink. Not least because its own MPs came back from their constituencies with their ears ringing.

Only this week, the Health Minister announced that amended standards would be issued, and in any case existing homes would be exempt provided they made it clear to potential residents that they did not meet all the standards on room sizes, shower facilities, and so on.

That sounds like common sense, and another wonderful - if last minute - opportunity for the county council to climb down without losing face. It could rightly say: "Thank goodness the Government has listened - now we can look again."

But so far it has flatly refused to do so, ploughing on regardless with its plans to shut or sell off 32 homes. The trouble is, it's all too easy to concentrate on the buildings and forget the people who live in them.

Elderly and in many cases frail, they are some of the county's most vulnerable people, yet they have live for months under the threat of an uncertain future.