All but two of Devon County Council owned care homes will shut under new cost-cutting plans, it has been revealed today.
Some 250 elderly residents will be forced to move into privately-run facilities under the plans, which will also see up to 1,000 jobs lost.
The council has today revealed it will close 20 homes, leaving just two specialist dementia units, in Torrington and Newton Abbot.
But Liberal Democrat councillors claim the decision was already "cut and dried" months ago after, and said few should be surprised by the "axe being yielded".
Cllr Alan Connett, Lib Dem group leader, said: "What we do know is that many people will believe these decisions were already made - and simply announced today - regardless of the consultation and pleadings from residents and communities over the past months."
"The Conservatives don't want to run services for Devon's residents, they want to be money men, managing budgets and buying care services as though it was a supermarket tin of beans.
The move comes amid cuts of £28million this financial year by the Conservative authority, which expects to have slashed more than £200million from its expenditure by 2017.
Cabinet member Stuart Barker announced the closures at a press conference at County Hall, in Exeter, on Monday.
He pledged that no facility would close where medical experts felt it would severely affect vulnerable residents.
The decision came after officials calculated that providing and commissioning care services was costing the authority around £900 per person per week.
By contrast, funding a bed for a resident in a private care home would cost roughly half that amount.
The council currently spends £70million on residential care, a spokesman said, with 30% of that figure spent on the 10% of the total care home residents in council-run homes.
The remaining 90% paid for by the authority are already in private facilities.
Councillor Barker said: "Nothing will happen immediately this is a process that will take time and we will do this with great care and sensitivity."
