AS residents and staff from one of Petersfield's best-loved care homes face up to their uncertain future, a campaign has been launched to save Bulmer House from closure.

Hampshire County Council has effectively sounded the death knell for the Ramshill home after announcing a 12-week consultation earlier this month into its closure.

It considers the home, which opened in 1976, along with four other homes in Hampshire, to be outdated and no longer fit for purpose. It wants to replace them with individual flats with 24-hour care and support and on-site facilities as part of its "extra care assisted living" plans to keep people out of residential homes where possible.

But Dilys Lownsborough, spokesman for the action group Save Bulmer House Committee, is now calling on people to support the campaign to keep the home open, for the sake of its residents.

For full story, see this week's Herald.