The 106-year-old evicted from care home in snow after court battle defeat

By Andy Dolan for the Daily Mail
Updated: 05:45 EDT, 14 January 2010

With only an umbrella and a blanket to protect her from the falling snow, one of Britain's oldest women was wheeled out of the care home she had fought in vain to prevent closing yesterday.

Louisa Watts, 106, and the four other remaining residents of Underhill House left the council-run home in wheelchairs with the temperature at freezing point - amid anger from relatives that the move had not been delayed until the weather improved.

The pensioner's 77-year-old son Derek had helped her take the case to the Appeal Court in a doomed attempt to stop Wolverhampton City Council closing the property as part of a round of cost-cutting measures.

Legal battle: Louisa Watts, who was moved despite the heavy snow, went to the High Court to appeal against the home's closure

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Final farewell: Mrs Watts is wheeled out of the home. Wolverhampton Council has closed the home as part of proposed £40million budget cuts

He said at the time of the court hearing in October that he feared the move from the home in the city's Bushbury suburb could kill his mother, thought to be the fifth oldest woman in the country.

Yesterday Mrs Watts, a great great-grandmother and widow, appeared tearful as she left Underhill House for the final time.

Wearing a thick winter coat under her blanket, she told onlookers she did not want to leave as she was wheeled to a white minibus.

Outrage: Mrs Watts' son Derek who said the ordeal had left her 'distraught'

Another resident burst into tears and said 'goodbye home' as she was put on to the bus.

Mrs Watts and three of her friends have been moved to the Sycamores Nursing Home two miles away.

The fifth resident, 80-year-old Emmie Gill, was moving into nearby sheltered accommodation.

Relatives said they were 'disgusted' the pensioners were moved in freezing conditions with inches of snow on the ground.

Mr Watts, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, said: 'The council have behaved terribly right the way through this whole process. This is just the latest example.

'Why couldn't they have waited until the weather improved? They are a disgrace.'

He added: 'If anything happens to my mother because of this move, I will make sure someone is for the high jump, because they have been warned about it.'

Mick Beswick, 68, whose mother Minnie, 93, was also among those being moved, said: 'It is unbelievable they are moving people including a 93-year-old, a 98-year-old, and a 106-year-old on a day like this. There is nothing wrong with the place.

'Louisa's health has gone down hill remarkably and she said the other day that she would rather throw herself in the canal than move.'

Speaking from her new home yesterday afternoon, Mrs Watts said she had not realised she was to leave Underhill House yesterday until a care assistant told her just before 11am.

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Taken away: Another of the last four remaining residents follows Mrs Watts out of the care home this morning

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Underhill House: The care home is being shut as part of £40million budget cuts

The former hospital porter said: 'I really wanted to stay and I wish I could have stayed there for many more years.

'This whole ordeal has been extremely upsetting. I was dreading leaving, we fought so hard to keep the place open.

'The council acted disgracefully. I think the elderly are badly mistreated and let down in this country. We're often forgotten - there's no justice for us.'

Mrs Watts moved into the home four years ago after the death of her daughter Jean at the age of 78. She could not move in with her son because his house had no downstairs bathroom and she could not manage stairs.

Wolverhampton City Council approved plans to close Underhill House last April as part of proposed £40million budget cuts to be made by 2011 to keep council tax rises down.

Mrs Watts, represented by campaigning lawyer Yvonne Hossacks, went to the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn the decision. 

But leave to appeal the decision was refused in October, when the two judges also lifted an injunction preventing the home from closing.

Millionaire businessman Trevor Beattie then stepped in with an 11th-hour offer to fund the home for a year after being outraged by news of the residents' plight. But the council rejected his offer.

Mrs Hossacks who has so far prevented the closure of more than 80 care homes, has said many former clients who had been forced to move care homes had died within weeks.

According to her own research, 37 per cent of those who are subjected to the ordeal of a move die within a year.

Sarah Norman, the council's director for adults and community, said: 'Underhill House was built 40 years ago and no longer meets the modern space standards for a residential care home relating to room size and the need for en-suite facilities.'

The Daily Mail has been highlighting the treatment of old people as part of our Dignity for the Elderly Campaign.