Don't cut our meals on wheels, plead older people

Older people who rely on a meals on wheels service are urging councillors to rethink plans to axe the service to save money.

More than 300 older and housebound people use Caerphilly council's Meals Direct, which is one of three subsidised services that could be cut to help save £45m over the next two years.

Retired nurse Margaretta Rees, 87, from Penybryn, said she always received a "lovely, fresh meal" and delivery staff were often the only people she spoke to in a day.

Eluned Stenner, Caerphilly council's cabinet member for finance, said it faced tough decisions but "nobody will be left to go hungry" if the plans went ahead.

Margaretta had just received a chicken dinner, a dessert and a sandwich to put in the fridge for tea when BBC News paid her a visit.

She said staff were "always ready to have a little chat and the thing is, because I am living on my own, it's just seeing someone alive".

"I put the television on but it's not the same, is it?"

Anyone can sign up for the daily meals service, paying £6.10, but about half receive a subsidised rate due to their vulnerabilities, paying £3.70 for a hot meal and dessert.

If the service was withdrawn, the council said it would direct people to alternative providers, but the costs of delivered meals from private companies are higher, with most offering frozen options.

Margaretta said she was "annoyed" at the council's plans and would be "lost" if the service closed.

"I'd be eating more bread and butter I expect - sandwiches," she said.

Garrod Evans, 95, a retired electrician from Risca, said he would be "devastated" if the service was cut and that staff also brightened his day.

"They come in and put it on a plate for me and have a chat. I would miss it a lot," he said.

One of Garrod's four children, Carol Sherlock, said the service gave her "peace of mind".

"A lot of people don't realise that everybody pays for their meals on wheels," she said.

"OK, it's subsidised, but my dad is 95, we all live away, we can't be here and he gets a meal at midday, plated and a friendly face to deliver it."

More than half of Welsh councils have already cut their meals on wheels in recent years.

Caerphilly council said closing Meals Direct alongside its staff canteen at its main building in Ystrad Mynach could save £440,000.

Proposals have also been put forward to withdraw the council subsidy from Blackwood Miners Institute and Llancaiach Fawr Manor House.

A total of 22 people work for Meals Direct with many seeing it as "more than just a job", according to Lianne Dallimore, branch secretary for the union Unison.

"You get to know these people who you are visiting every day and they become more to you than just service users so the staff, when they heard about the proposals, they were absolutely devastated," she said.

Councillor Eluned Stenner said the council was "facing a huge financial challenge".

"These are decisions that are very hard to make and we will be having lots of sleepless nights over these decisions," she said.

A consultation on the proposals is open until 10 September.