The statement said the board believes the decision is 'unjust, arbitrary and fails to take into account the improvements that have been put in place since the new board took over in late November 2020.' They are asking that the Commission reverse the decision.

The statement cited a January 2021 audit which Stephen says led the board to submit a self-assessment that will address the issues that were found by the Commission. They say that the board's assessment wasn't properly considered.

Mr Lesslie said at the weekend his feeling was that the bureaucrats wanted to claim ''we're tough guys (in enforcing requirements). Look what we've done at Lithgow".

Shock, confusion and outright anger in the community followed the bureaucratic announcement on Thursday night that the Lithgow Aged Care accreditation would not be renewed in April because of a failure to reach a number of operational benchmarks.

This would effectively shut down both Cooinda and the higher dependency Tanderra with extremely difficult prospects for the 75 residents.

The LAC has been working since late 2019 to address issues of concern raised by inspectors, issues that according to the board are mainly related to documentation.

"We know we do have some more major problems but the Commission has been of no help in resolving them. Support has been nil," Mr Lesslie said.

"We were forced to engage Sydney based consultants at $700 an hour who contributed nothing."

He believes the intention of the Commission is to force all community based aged care facilities like Lithgow Aged Care and Three Tree Lodge and Portland's Coleman House into private ownership.

"They would be filled with residents from North West Sydney who can afford to pay bigger fees and our residents will be squeezed out," he said.

Mr Lesslie said LAC was being denied procedural fairness and in this regard the timeline was significant.

There were inspections in March, July and October last year.

A new board was elected at the annual general meeting in late November and Mr Lesslie was elected chairman.

Since that time there have been seven inspections in seven weeks.

"They have bullied the staff and intimidated the board," Mr Lesslie said.

"We have not been given procedural fairness and it's all been an elaborate farce.

"Everyone knows the Royal Commission is coming down and the Aged Care Commission wants to pre-empt by saying they had made an example of Lithgow."

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