Closure plans will break friendships; Campaign to save centres stepped up.

Byline: Dave Black 

A DISABLED great-grandmother says bonds of friendship between elderly people and dedicated carers will be severed if seven council-run day centres in Northumberland are closed down.

Widow Vicky Hindhaugh, 73, spoke yesterday of the "anger and sadness" which has been provoked by the proposals to axe the popular centres in Amble, Bedlington, Blyth, Ponteland, Prudhoe, Hexham and Haltwhistle, which are used by about 370 elderly and disabled people.

Mrs Hindhaugh - who uses a wheelchair since a stroke left her partly paralysed 10 years ago and suffers from heart trouble and diabetes - has been attending the Lyndon House day care centre in Blyth twice-a-week for four years.

It is one of seven facing closure under a shake-up which would see users given 'personal budgets' which they can spend on getting out of the house and taking part in social activities of their choice.

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Yesterday the county council said the proposed closures form part of a pounds 1.28m cost-cutting exercise in adult care.

Mrs Hindhaugh said the centres offered old and disabled people the vital opportunity of meeting others in a similar situation to share a coffee, have a chat, exercise to music and take part in activities such as quizzes and trips out.

"I have developed great friendships with other people at Lyndon House and one of the most important things I also find is that the staff are like friends," she said.

"This will all end if the centre is closed and I fear some of the people I have become friends with will just stay inside their homes and get more and more depressed." Mrs Hindhaugh, of Bothal Close, Blyth, has planted rose bushes at the day centre in memory of her husband George and brother, John Cain, who died 24 and four years ago respectively. She will be out next week gathering a petition against the closure at the town's Asda store and Keel Row shopping centre.

"Going to the day centre is one of the bright spots in my life, because I go hardly anywhere else. There is just so much sadness about this and I have seen people at Lyndon House in tears. I am not just fighting for us, but also all the other day centres as well." Last night Blyth Valley MP Ronnie

Campbell said he supported the fight to save the Blyth day centre, and challenged Conservative county councillors to join forces with their Labour colleagues and defeat the minority Lib Dem administration's proposals.

Yesterday the county council said the number of elderly people booked to attend the seven centres has fallen by 9% in the last three years, despite the rapidly increasing elderly population.

A spokesman said: "We do expect that we would make a saving if the proposed changes to daytime support for older people are implemented, but the amount of that saving will depend on the outcome of the consultation.

"The main reason we expect to make a saving is that the centres are currently under-utilised, so we believe we are able to offer appropriate support through personal budgets at a lower cost than what we are spending on the current service."

A CONSULTATION exercise on the proposed changes in Northumberland runs until August 20 and includes meetings with elderly service users in the centres and a series of public meetings.

A decision on the future of council-run day care centres is expected to be taken by the unitary authority in September.

The public meetings will be held on Wednesday, June 17, at Prudhoe Community High School; Thursday 18 at Ponteland Community High School; Friday 19 at Trinity Methodist Church, Beaumont Street, Hexham; Tuesday 23 at Haltwhistle Methodist Church; Wednesday 24 at Amble Social Club, Bede Street; Thursday 25 at The Salvation Army, Hartford Road West, Bedlington and Friday 26 at the Isabella Centre, Ogle Drive, Blyth.

All meetings will start at 6pm.

HAVE YOUR SAY

CAPTION(S):

CAMPAIGN Vicky Hindhaugh from Blyth who is campaigning to keep the Lyndon Day Centre open. "The staff are like friends," she said. IMPORTANT The Lyndon Centre.