The owner of two care homes has won £5,000 compensation from a council after a battle lasting almost 15 years.

West Sussex County Council has agreed to pay the fine after a Local Government Ombudsman report upheld a complaint made against staff at Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester dating back to 1987.

A husband-and-wife team who owned two seaside residential care homes for the mentally ill complained seven times to the watchdog after staff at Graylingwell failed to refer patients to their homes between 1987 and 1994.

The ombudsman found the hospital staff should have told the man, who is not named in the report, why they were not making referrals.

Both homes are now closed and the husband claimed the hospital's lack of referrals caused loss of business as well as distress and damage to his health.

Mark Dunn, West Sussex County Council Cabinet member for social and caring services, said: "It is the county council's practice always to accept and act on the ombudsman's decision.

"All this happened 14 years ago and our council always agrees with the umpire. We really regret this happened.

"Circumstances have changed since then so it is unlikely to happen again. Care in the Community has moved forward apace.

"The number of institutes has reduced a great deal and we have a closer working relationship with the health service.

"We didn't delay this decision but we did have other priorities. I don't know why it took 14 years to come to this but we will pay up."