Campaigners vow to fight on for Wirral’s closure-threatened day centres

Feb 27 2013 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Campaigners vow to fight on for Wirral’s closure-threatened day centres

PARENTS and carers have vowed to fight on to save a closure-threatened council-run day centre.

Wirral Council has agreed money-saving measures and cuts which will shut one of the borough’s day centres for adults with learning and physical disabilities in Moreton, Heswall or Eastham.

The proposals – and a 2% increase in council tax – were approved by cabinet members last week and a final decision will be made on March 5.

Even if councillors agree the closure, families face a further three-month wait while consultation takes place to decide which centre shuts.

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

He said Wirral had “one too many” centres for the current demand and a third of places were empty.

Ann McGreal, of Moreton, whose daughter Nicola, 32, attends Moreton day centre four days a week, said parents and carers were angry, upset and worried about the future.

She said: “We still don’t know what will happen and the longer this goes on, the more distress it causes.”

Cllr Davies pledged respite or day care services would not be taken away from anyone who needed them.

He said: “Nobody receiving either of these services at the moment will have them taken away.”