Thomson Court may, however, be leased to a private care provider if Argyll and Bute Council goes ahead with a proposal to advertise five of its care homes for lease to the private sector under a partnership agreement with the authority.

Alarm bells rang when we received an account of a meeting of the council's Special Committee for Older People's Services (SCOPS) this week, stating that the committee had "approved in principle the recommendation...to advertise five council homes for lease to an interested private provider as part of a partnership agreement with the council", and to advertise one further council-owned home for sale.

But island councillor Len Scoullar, who serves on that committee, told us it was far from certain that the council would carry out the proposed sale or lease of the six homes - and added that Thomson Court was not being considered for outright sale.

The SCOPS members were advised last month to decide whether, as part of the preparation of tenders for older people's services, the council's care homes should be advertised within the tender for sale or lease.
The committee agreed to the plan in principle, "subject to further information and recommendations as the process towards proposed tendering is completed".

Said Cllr Scoullar: "We realised that selling our care homes completely would mean we wouldn't have control over the services provided within them.

"We are hoping that the private operator we are talking to may take over staff under TUPE regulations and provide the same or a better level of service than we are providing at the moment.

"Thomson Court is not being earmarked for sale - in fact, we may not get to the position where we have to sell any of our homes at all.

"But the council recognises that we cannot wait for a position to develop where we cannot afford to provide services for our growing number of elderly people, so we are looking at ways of using money more effectively to provide the same level of service for more people.

"It all comes down to a question of the council being prudent over its allocation of money."

Council leader Dick Walsh visited Thomson Court on April 28 and promised he would protect those who provided and received services within the building.

The council, meanwhile, has welcomed the statement last week by depute first minister Nicola Sturgeon pledging an additional £40 million to support free personal and nursing care across Scotland in the face of a significant funding gap.

The legislation relating to charging for food preparation will also be clarified, and a more open system introduced to explain how access to the resource is managed.