SIR – At last an MP who is talking common sense. Gerry Sutcliffe is absolutely right when he says that the Council should keep the existing old people’s care homes open until replacements are built.

The older generation have lived through recessions, poverty, unemployment and hardship, even more so than we have nowadays, and they did so with respect and dignity. They don’t deserve to be moved about like pawns on a chess board at their time of life.

All well and good the Council are planning to build new care homes, but the big question is “when?” Leave the old people to live in peace within familiar surroundings until such times as these new care homes are built.

Mrs S Higgins, Calverley Avenue, Bradford