SPRINGFIELD House in Purton today becomes the latest residential home in the Swindon area to close and oblige elderly residents to seek alternative accommodation because of what the owner calls excessive red tape.

If the Government thinks it can brush the matter under the carpet because elderly people are generally too stoic to complain, it is wrong.

Elderly people may not generally be overly vocal, but they have votes.

And so do their children and their children's children.