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Can you spare any sympathy for councillors?

They're probably not up there with fluffy animals and cute kids, but sometimes I do feel a pang of sentiment.

Take .

The there wants to close seven of them.

As you can imagine it's not gone down well with the older people who use them.

I saw the strength of feeling yesterday when half a dozen of the daycare users - all fairly frail but formidable - struggled out to tell me how upset they were.

Yet the alternative that the council's offering does seem on the face of it more modern, and perhaps more dignified.

Older people will be handed control of their own budget to spend on the care they want.

The problem - many of the existing users just want to be able to go to the daycare centres that'll no longer be there.

The problem for the council is they're expensive - according to the authority they're twice as pricey as those run by charities and the private sector.

There's also a feeling that daycare centres will begin to die gradually anyway as a new generation of older people will have different demands.

A new generation of older people, I suspect, may well prefer more control over their care.

But of course whether that's right or wrong, closing them makes the council look callous.

Other councils may face the same unpalatable choice in the future.

It'll be a test for Northumberland to see how well they manage the needs of different groups of older people.

Let me know what you think.

------

It's the crucial Anne McIntosh selection meeting tonight - see earlier post.

So I'm off to Malton to see what happens.

I still find it hard to believe the local Conservative association will deselect a Tory front bencher purely because of personality clashes.

But there does seem to be a group who really don't like her, so it's all in the balance.

I hope to blog on the result tomorrow, but if you want the news earlier, you can follow developments on - just follow Richardpolshow.

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