THE prospect of 45 elderly, perhaps confused, Craven residents being evicted from their nursing homes is a chilling one. Perhaps it is an idle threat from the nursing homes, a measure of their despair.

It would be wrong to paint the nursing homes as the villains of the piece. They have a genuine case and, as a private business, cannot be expected to subsidise the community's responsibility towards looking after its elderly.

Nor too is the county council mean and penny-pinching. Its budget is not meeting increased demand and costs, some of it imposed by central Government instructions.

A meeting after the Herald went to press may have found a way through the problem but we suspect it will be a temporary measure.

At their annual conference last week Newsquest editors were informed on demographic changes in the country.

Worryingly, although life expectancy has increased by some 10 per cent over the last century, healthy life expectancy, ie the age to which most people live without a breakdown of their physical or mental health has only increased by five per cent. In other words, we are living longer but more of our twilight years are spent in poor health. The problem can only get worse.