Lancashire council-run care homes to readmit residents
The five council-run homes were placed under review back in October
Last updated 19th Dec 2025
Five Lancashire care homes which have a question mark hanging over their futures will start to readmit long-term residents, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal.
The Lancashire County Council-run facilities were placed under review by the authority back in October, after their buildings were deemed to be in “significantly poor condition”.
At that point, the homes were closed to most new admissions – with only temporary placements being accepted. County Hall said it would be “unreasonable” for people to be allowed to move into the properties when there was a possibility that closure or a disruptive refurbishment might be on the horizon early next year.
However, it was announced earlier this week that a final decision about the services – which had been due in February 2026 – would now be delayed because of the scale of the response to a public consultation recently carried out as part of the review, which generated more than 1,600 replies.
Now, the block on accepting permanent residents has also been lifted. However, the LDRS understands that anybody moving into the facilities – Favordale (Colne), Grove House (Adlington), Milbanke (Kirkham), Thornton House (Thornton Cleveleys) and Woodlands (Clayton-le-Moors) – and their families will be advised of the ongoing process so that they are fully aware of the situation.
Asked by the LDRS earlier this week whether he could commit to the starting point for the review now being an ambition to keep the homes open, the county council’s Reform UK leader, Stephen Atkinson, said that would be “prejudging” the matter.
“We wouldn’t be extending the timeframe to make this decision in that case,” he said, adding that he wanted to ensure “every one” of the “heartfelt” consultation responses was considered as part of the assessment.
Progressive Lancashire opposition group leader Azhar Ali had previously claimed the moratorium on most new residents being admitted smacked of an effort to “run down” the homes.
He told the LDRS that he was glad his “pleas to try and fill these rooms have finally been heard” – and repeated a call for the administration to establish a “cross-party working group to come up with sensible plans for the homes moving forward”.
County Cllr Ali said he believed there were now around 24 vacancies across the five premises, although the LDRS understands that 17 of them pre-dated the start of the review.