NEWS of the closures of Wellington’s two Abbeyfield Society homes came as an emotional shock to the residents and their family members and friends who attended meetings with representatives of the charity this week.

The fact that Abbeyfield despatched relatively junior personnel to deliver the news face to face is probably the only note of decency in these proceedings.

For the rest of this sorry tale, it can only be said that Abbeyfield’s conduct has not covered them in any glory.

It quickly became apparent to those trying to work with the charity to find a way of keeping open Ivy House and The Old Vicarage, that Abbeyfield seemed to have a rather different agenda.

The impression was that Abbeyfield, stricken by financial losses on its annual balance sheet, had brought in a new chief executive to asset strip and raise capital funds by closing many of its homes across the country.

If that was not the case, the question has to be asked why Abbeyfield opened consultations last year on 13 of its homes in the Westcountry and all 13 are now being closed.

Surely, genuine efforts to keep homes open would have resulted in saving at least one.