The North Belfast News can exclusively reveal the names of  the three residential homes facing closure as part of the Belfast Trust's plan to cut costs.

Chestnut Grove in the North of the city, Grovetree in West Belfast and Pine Lodge in East Belfast are the three facilities earmarked to close as part of the Trust's efforts to save £300 million under the government's cost-cutting Comprehensive Spending Review.

Chestnut Grove on the Somerton Road currently houses around 45 senior citizens and is the only Belfast Trust residential home in the area.

It is not known what would happen the elderly residents if the go ahead is given to its closure.

The Trust launched a public consultation paper on its plans, called Excellence and Choice in Older People’s Services last month, on January 22. The consultation date on both this paper and another on mental health services will close on 26 March 2009. 

In the report the Trust says it favours taking care of older people in their own homes rather than in Trust managed facilities.

It states that more women than men will be affected by the closures. It also believes that Catholics will suffer more than Protestants by the proposals.

"There are more Protestants (71 per cent ) than Roman Catholics (39 per cent) over 65s in the population of Belfast and Castlereagh. There is however a higher proportion of people from a Roman Catholic background and a lower proportion of Protestants than the over-65 population as a whole. 

"This means the phasing out of permanent admissions to the Trust’s statutory residential homes could have the potential to impact more on people from a Roman Catholic background."

Unison spokesman Joe McCusker said the trade union was gearing up to launch a full scale offensive against the cuts.

"The proposals are currently under consideration but we are really concerned that these homes could be outsourced to the private sector," he said. "While it has been stated jobs won't be at risk, we do have concerns that that may not be the case. It's about residents. Where do they go? What sort of service provision will replace the homes?"

Unison will be holding a large scale rally at Stormont to protest against the plans. 

"We are totally opposed to the efficiency cuts outlined in CSR and what we're asking the assembly and health depart is to exclude health services from CSR entirely."

A spokeswoman for the Belfast Trust said no decision had been made to close any residential home in the Belfast Trust area. 

"But the Belfast Trust is consulting on a number of proposals to improve the way it provides support to older people," she said. "One way of doing this would be to provide more support to people in their own homes in the future because not everyone likes the idea of living in a residential home. Until the current consultation period closes, and the outcome is discussed by the Trust Board at its April meeting, no decisions can be taken on exactly how future services might be delivered."