Parents and carers vow to fight on over Wirral Council plans to close day centre

Feb 20 2013 by Lorna Hughes, Liverpool Echo

DEVASTATED parents and carers have vowed to fight on to save a closure-threatened council-run day centre in Wirral.

Wirral Council’s cabinet on Monday agreed a raft of money-saving measures that will see one of the borough’s largest day centres for adults with learning and physical disabilities shut.

It will mean the loss of either Moreton, Heswall or Eastham day centre – but no decision has been taken about which one will close.

The proposals – and a 2% increase in council tax – were approved by cabinet members on Monday and a final decision will be made at a meeting of the full council on March 5.

Even if councillors agree the closure then, families face an agonising three-month wait while a consultation takes place to decide which centre should shut.

Over 15,000 people have signed a petition calling for the day centres to stay open but Cllr Phil Davies, leader of Wirral Council, said the number of people attending them had “dropped considerably” in the last five years.

Peter Linnane, whose son Mark, 30, has attended Heswall day centre for 11 years, said cabinet members were “on a different planet” and appealed to them to think again.

Mr Linnane from Bebington, said: “We feel as though we have been used by the council as a tick box exercise when in fact they have not listened to any proposals we put forward.