Residents in Sandwich have pledged support for Wayfarers after it was announced the care home will be sold because it has been deemed “not fit for purpose”.

Last week, Kent County Council revealed the St Bart’s Road home would be sold to a private company as a going concern, meaning residents and staff would remain and a private organisation would run the home.

In a letter to the Mercury, Peter Hughes, of Woodnesborough Road, said he was sceptical of KCC’s reasoning to sell up.

He said: “The county council has declared the home “not fit for purpose” and too expensive to modernise. If that truly is the case, then what are they doing selling it as a going concern?

“They can’t have it both ways, if it really is “not fit for purpose” then why not pull it down and re-home the residents in a new and more modern building.”

Mr Hughes said when he was looking for care homes for his parents, Wayfarers and Samson Court in Deal were the only suitable ones.

“If they are closing down care homes and re-locating residents, are all those residents going to care homes with all the facilities that are said to be missing at Wayfarers?”

Others on Facebook also showed their support. Anne Broadley said: “It’s unbelievable when we are having a great need for wonderful loving homes like this filled with staff that really care. KCC need to re-think this decision. Not all the elderly want to stay in their own homes.”

Mandy Sheard added: “Absolutely disgusting. They offer a fantastic service to our elderly folk in need. They would be hard pushed to justify this action. Outrageous. Something needs to be done about this urgently.”

This isn’t the first time that KCC has consulted on whether to sell the care home as a going concern.

Back in 2010, a similar consultation took place which saw the Friends of Wayfarers springing into action to protest against the home being privatised. KCC said the plans fell through when the possible buyer could not commit to running the premises as a care home.

This week, Sandwich Town Council has written to KCC asking that the site remains as a care home. It also asked the authority to specify how it could make this a legally binding condition with the buyer.

Kent County Council says Wayfarers would only be sold to an organisation with a track record in care.

The council told the Mercury keeping the site as a care home would be a condition of the sale.

A spokesman said: “KCC would look to sell to an organisation who has a track record in care and would want the organisation to continue running it as a care home but to modernise it. The terms of the contract of sale need to be established to understand what is attractive to a provider and the likelihood of it progressing to full sale.

“TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) would be a condition of sale which means that the provider would have to enter into these agreements. This is the reason the last attempt failed as the provider could not honour the terms of TUPE which demonstrates that KCC is committed to there being an ongoing sustainable care home.”

KCC has said that “doing nothing is not an option”.

This means if no company shows an interest in buying the property or feedback shows the majority do not want to see the home privatised, then this will be presented to the cabinet member for consideration.

For more information, or to participate in the consultation, visit www.kent.gov.uk/olderpeoplesfutures to complete the online questionnaire.

Alternatively, complete the paper form and send it to Freepost OP FUTURES, or hand it in at Wayfarers, St Bart’s Road, Sandwich.