I READ with interest your article (LET, November 21) about the legal action taken by the various groups -- one of which I am a member -- fighting the closure of care homes for the elderly run by Lancashire County Council.

I was at once struck by some historical similarities with the whole issue and your photograph of the vote in council.

The aged and infirm residents of the homes fought against a regime in 1939-45 which thought it was better to take people from their homes and transport them to somewhere they did not want to go, against their wishes.

It seems ironic to me that if you look at the picture of the vote you see the same gesture.

Let us not forget that these councillors were voted in to express the will of the people and it is clear by letters in your newspaper and petitions raised that the will of the people is being ignored.

Hospitals are having huge problems with bed blocking and I speak from personal experience, twice with my mother, although county council leader Hazel Harding would, of course, disagree, as she has in the past.

Why are there no new admissions into the homes? Why are there no referrals from hospitals when the aged are kept in hospital beds because there is nowhere to place them? Why are rooms being closed down after aged residents pass away?

Lancashire County Council would like us to believe in this wonderful dream of care in the community but what the truth may be is that it is self-financing. You only get what you can afford. Once the money runs out, so does the care.

It is time the homes were run by true caring bodies and not whizz kids who look upon our aged relatives as units in a factory that have no commercial value.

B M JOYCE, Coal Clough Lane, Burnley.