Surely our elderly are deserving of better care than this?

What an amazing indictment of Leicestershire County Council, as exposed by the Mercury (Is this right deal for our elderly?, September 25) concerning the sell-off of nine care homes to Southend Care – and all to save £375,000 annually.

My reading of the finances of the council is that there is a considerable number of millions in their reserves, so why aren't these used to bring the homes up to standard?

It is outrageous that, given the Care Quality Commission's findings on the inadequacy of existing care homes run by Southend Care, that Leicestershire County Council should consider it a fit and proper organisation to be entrusted with the care of our elderly.

Should not the elderly expect more of its county council?

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Perhaps, via the Leicester Mercury, the council could explain the reasoning behind its decision and why it cannot be reconsidered?

The cost of the necessary improvements to the nine care homes is estimated at £4 million.

With more than sizeable assets in its reserves, would it not be better for the county council to bring these homes up-to-date and then look for other ways of financing and managing its responsibility to our elderly?

What are the council's contingency and funding reserves for, if not to be used in such circumstances?

The county council is a political organisation and subject to political and ideological changes and therefore should not be running such provision.

It should establish a self-financing, not-for-profit trust to oversee the management of these homes.

There is more than enough expertise in Leicestershire to ensure that these nine homes become beacons of provision rather than simply being at risk by a provider found, on close inspection, to be inadequate.

Finally, what penalty clauses have the county council written into the agreement, should Southend Care be unable to, or be found incapable of, running a high-quality care provision of which we can be proud?

I am sure that there are other considerations, but thank you to the Leicester Mercury for bringing this to our attention.

Mike C Lee, Broughton Astley.