A COUPLE married for 66 years have been separated after Bexley Council changed its mind about allowing them to live in a care home together.

Their daughter Sandra Blight, has blasted the council’s decision as “cruel and wicked” and says she fears one of them may die before the matter is resolved.

Her father Gordon Kennedy, 96, was moved to a care home in Bexleyheath at the end of April and is suffering from prostate cancer and slight dementia.

Her mother Marie, aged 86, has severe osteoarthritis and has also been diagnosed with the onset of dementia, but is in the Bexleyheath house where they have lived in all their married lives.

She has had several falls and can no longer get upstairs.

Mrs Blight, who lives in Ramsgate, said: “My dad misses mum terribly and cries when we take him home to see her, as he does not want to leave again.”

Mrs Blight and her sister, currently on holiday from Australia where she now lives, found a care home in Cliftonville, 15 minutes away from Mrs Blight’s home, which could accommodate her parents together.

It would also Bexley Council cost far less than the payments for Mr Kennedy’s current care home and the three home care visits a day plus other support for her mother.

In addition the couple’s three-bedroom home, which is owned by a housing association, would be freed up for a new family to move in.

Mrs Blight approached the council with recommendations from her mother’s doctor and a psychiatric nurse that Mrs Kennedy also needed a care home.

On June 23 Bexley wrote to her and confirmed both her parents both qualified for residential care and that the council would pay for it.

The council checked out the Cliftonville care home and approved it, and the sisters took their parents to see it and told them they would be moving there together.

But then Bexley changed its mind and said its re-ablement team had decided Mrs Kennedy was able to live on her own at home, with support.

Mrs Blight said: “My mother now says she would like to go to sleep and not wake up.

“And at 96 years old, how many years has my father got left?

“It is cruel and wicked to split my parents.”

Bexleyheath MP David Evennett, who has taken up the couple’s case said: “I believe, following discussions with their daughter, there is a good case for keeping them together at the place she has suggested.”

A spokeswoman for Bexley said: “The council can only fund people whose needs are fully confirmed as requiring a service.”

She added: “ Although an initial application for residential care for Mrs Kennedy was approved, it became evident that there were details about her needs and abilities which needed further consideration.”

The council says it is currently assessing Mrs Kennedy at home.

The spokeswoman added: “In the meantime, we are working with the family to enable Mrs Kennedy to spend time with her husband in his current care home, as well as providing carer support to her.”