A POLICE inquiry has concluded there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding nine deaths at Huncoat's Mapleford Nursing Home.

The investigation was launched in February following an "unusually high number of deaths'' that occurred at the home between December last year and January.

The findings of the inquiry have now been passed on to East Lanca-shire Coroner Michael Singleton, who asked the police to investigate following a referral from the Commission for Social Care Inspection which oversees all social care organisations.

Detective Inspector Pete Broome, in charge of the investigation, said this week: "We have conducted an in-depth review of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these people and found there to be nothing untoward at all.

"This has been a distressing time for the relatives of those who have died but we have informed them of the results of our review. It is a simple but sad conclusion that these people had simply reached the end of their natural lives."

At the time the investigation began, the manager of Mapleford, David Lewis, said: "This is good practice because everything is safeguarded. We are perfectly happy with it.

"In the aftermath of Shipman people have become much more aware of these things."