REGARDING your article (LET, October 12) on the shake-up of care of our elderly, Councillor Sue Reid speaks of reflecting "the wishes of the overwhelming majority of older people" in exonerating her ruthless tactics when managing Blackburn with Darwen's social services budget.

Where is the locally-gathered evidence which justifies this statement? She certainly hasn't sought the views of any resident who enjoys the safe and comfortable lifestyle of a private residential home.

If she has the conclusive results of a public survey, let's see them.

We can all, then, be reassured that those people who are now 'enabled' to stay in their own home, who can't get up in the morning until help arrives, are left alone most of the day, may have breakfast half an hour before lunch arrives, who can't go to bed freely and are frightened to spend the night alone do it of their own choice.

Coun Reid seems to have an uncanny access to the views of the vast majority of elderly people. How else does she justify placing into her department's own residential establishments, the overwhelming majority of people fortunate enough to have residential care approved by social services?

Even the politician's breathtaking talent for disguising hypocrisy could not reconcile maintaining 95 per cent occupancy levels in her own residential establishments at the same time she is achieving her "excellent progress so far" in keeping people at home.

Anyone who entertains doubts as to where the real sentiment lies regarding the welfare of our elderly should consider that, of the 13 per cent extra funding which Government has provided for residential care in Blackburn with Darwen since 1998, less than one per cent has been passed on to the independent service provider to maintain the service.

More inquisitive readers may query where the money has gone. Well, that's easy -- it costs approximately £3,000 more per resident per year in local authority homes than it does in a private sector home, and with the overwhelming majority of residential placements engineered without any choice into Social Services' own residential establishments, the money has to come from somewhere. In her department's latest newsletter, Coun Reid says: "Social services is forging closer links with the owners of independent residential care providers in Blackburn with Darwen."

How can she make this statement when independent providers are so aware that the elderly people of Blackburn with Darwen are systematically directed into local authority homes without a free and full choice of all homes, and when her funding of the independent sector has been left so far behind other adjacent authorities?

ROD WILKINS for Blackburn with Darwen Care Homes Group, representing 31 private sector homes for the elderly.