TRUSTEES responsible for selling off the French Convalescent Home in Brighton came to town yesterday and insisted: "It will still be closed."

Despite petitions bearing the names of 1,500 worried and angry protesters, trustees Michel Koenig, Jean Capitoni and Gerard Ocquidant refused to budge.

Staff said trustees claimed the decision to sell the home to developers who plan to bulldoze it next year was now in the hands of the French Government and could not be reversed.

They visited the imposing and historic home in Kemp Town to meet manager Catherine Gennaro, concerned residents, and health bosses, whose job it will be to move dozens of elderly and frail residents to new homes.

But they failed to offer any hope the building would be saved.

Mrs Gennaro said: "They were very business-like and wanted to get the point over that matters have been taken out of their hands and they were now merely spokesmen for the French Government.

Developers

"They said it was the French Government's decision to sell the home, maintaining the Government no longer saw any reason to have a piece of French property on English land."

Mr Koenig, chairman of the board of trustees, which has sold the building on Brighton seafront to developers Bovis Retirement Homes, also told staff the home would still be pulled down to make way for 67 sheltered flats.

However, he did pledge to fight for a later closure date, currently threatened for April next year, and to urge social services chiefs to consider each resident, many of whom cannot speak English, as individual cases, Mrs Gennaro said.

She added: "Social services and the East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority would do that anyway. They have to ensure the welfare of residents is safeguarded.

"Ideally, we want to save the home as it is. If we cannot do that, we want to look at moving ourselves and the residents somewhere else. We need time to do that, and the trustees said they are prepared to help us negotiate that extra time.

"They said they would handle the residents with sensitivity. People talk about

things like welfare of elderly people, yet they still get moved and pushed about."

But for some, the trustees' pledges were not enough.

Olive Trublin-Rizzo, 89, is one of 40 residents at the home. The French-speaking widow cared for wounded soldiers in Paris in World War Two.

Now her furious daughter, Eleonore Vincent-Gill, says her native country is washing its hands of her.

Mrs Vincent-Gill, of Brighton, spoke with Mr Koenig during his visit to the home. She said afterwards: "I am ashamed to say I am French."

The Argus campaign to protect the residents and save the building has reached hundreds of people. A total of 350 people have signed our official petition form in just four days.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 more have sent their petitions to the home in De Courcel Road itself.

Last night, the trustees refused to speak to our reporter as they left Brighton and Hove Council's nursing home registration and inspection unit in Hove.

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