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Staff still working at empty Greenholme care home

Oct 11 2009 by Dave Black, Sunday Sun

Yesterday Haltwhistle resident and self-employed contractor Kevin Little said one member of staff had described herself and a colleague as “security” for the building at night.

He said: “To me to have trained care workers effectively acting as night watchmen in an empty home is a complete and utter waste of resources. There have been two lasses there every night since the last resident left a fortnight ago.

“I think it is absolutely diabolical, and if they need security at night they should do it properly, not use carers. Why on earth do they need to do decommissioning work during the night in any case?”

Conservative county councillor for Haltwhistle Ian Hutchinson said: “I knew nothing about this until Mr Little informed me. I understand his concerns and I am concerned myself if that is what they are doing.”

A county council spokeswoman said: “The two care workers working at Greenholme are covering their normal rota, which is night hours. The work they are carrying out will be in line with the overall decommissioning of the site, such as cleaning and packing.

“We are carrying out a risk assessment which will look at the overall security needs of the building once this is no longer occupied, and will reflect the security which we normally adopt in buildings which are not staffed 24 hours a day.”

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