Shock at White Windows care home after planned sale is announced

Owners Leonard Cheshire has announced that White Windows will be one of 17 of their homes to be sold to other providers.

Pat Horrocks-Taylor is a volunteer at White Windows with connections to the home that stretch back to her childhood.

She said: “It’s a bolt from the blue. I can see why they’re doing it, they want to become more modern and have smaller pod units to help younger disabled people.

“But there’s one man who has been there for 60 years.

“We don’t know when the building will be sold, or who to.

“Everyone was just shocked, all the staff, residents, families, fundraisers and supporters.

“We’ve had an amazing group of people all working together over the years, it is like a family. There’s 20-something people there.

“The ones nearby, in Bradford and Huddersfield, started because of White Windows. They saw what we were doing and started themselves.”

Pat says everyone at the home is now worried about what the future will hold.

She added: “They say they will sell them on as going concerns but will they?

“They said they will run them for the next 18 months but we feel we’re in a vacuum of not knowing what’s going on.

“We’re very disappointed. Leonard Cheshire was so proud of the homes.

“We were the first in the north of England.

“Since White Windows started it’s been full nearly all the time. It will leave a big hole in people’s lives.

“We’ll have to see what happens but we do feel a little abandoned.”