Kent County Council’s adult social care committee will now be obliged to hold a specific debate over its proposed closure of the Dorothy Lucy Centre in Maidstone after supporters of the home gathered a petition of more than 3,000 signatures.

A threshold of 2,500 electors is sufficient to trigger a debate.

The petition was organised by Anna Ralph and Sue Black, who both have relatives that use Dorothy Lucy and who say the closure will have a devastating effect on their families.

The county’s procedures prevented them from handing in the petition themselves to a meeting of the full council today, it had to be introduced by a councillor, but Cllr Brian Clark (Lib Dem) stepped in to do the honours.

Cllr Clark also arranged for Mrs Ralph to meet the chairman of the council, Cllr Mike Harrison (Con), privately beforehand, where she was thanked for her hard work.

At the same time, Cllr Tom Gates (Con) from Faversham presented a similar petition raised by supporters of the Kiln Court Care Home in Faversham, which is also threatened with closure.

Meanwhile around 30 demonstrators from the Anti-Austerity Alliance picketed the meeting at County Hall, waving placards and shouting slogans.

They included Dan Wilkinson from Maidstone Momentum who said: “We have come here to express our opposition to the closure of four care homes across Kent for vulnerable older people, many of whom are suffering from dementia.

“The closures will have a hugely detrimental effect on the lives of these people and their families, as well as costing hundreds of jobs.

“The real reason for these closures is the Tories’ ideological war on public services - a war which is always going to hurt those least able to fight back.”

The forced debate is likely to be on Thursday, January 14, although that is yet to be confirmed.