Second centre set to be axed

8:40am Tuesday 21st November 2006

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ANOTHER 150 of York's most vulnerable people are being affected by the closure of a second York day care centre.

They are physically- handicapped adults who attend the Huntington Road centre, next door to the Yearsley Bridge centre, which is attended by more than 70 learning disabled adults.

The Press reported last week how relatives of people who attend Yearsley Bridge were furious that City of York Council had decided to shut it down and sell off the site, without consulting with them or informing them.

Now Val Kinsler, whose sister, Rhoda, attends the Huntington Road centre, has contacted the paper to complain that it too is to shut down - again without customers or their relatives being consulted.

She said Rhoda, of Haxby, who is in her 70s and suffers from Meniere's Disease and osteoporosis, had been going to the centre for years, where she took part in activities such as pottery, painting on silk and computing.

"She loves it there," Val said.

She claimed the site had already been sold by the council, and the centre would close in May 2008, with those attending being told this was being done "in their best interests."

Val told The Press that at a meeting attended by a council representative, people were told very little about what would happen in the future, although they were told they would have "to think outside the box."

She said: "The one thing she was clear about was that the site was already sold, and it wasn't really their business to question this decision.

"It was overwhelmingly clear that the vast majority of those attending the meeting, whose opinion was not sought before the site was sold off, wanted the centre to continue, if not in its present site, at least in some similar format."

She said she suspected that the authority was selling a valuable site "at the expense of the most vulnerable people in our society, in the knowledge they are going to be able to do little about it."

She said many centre customers had difficulty in communicating because of the after-effects of their illness, and had been in no position to campaign against closure.

"If the council were sincere about wanting to improve services to the physically and mentally handicapped, surely they would have asked what they wanted for the future before they sold the site, not afterwards.

"The council seem to have forgotten that they are there to serve the public, not the other way round, and someone needs to speak up for the vulnerable in our society."

Site not sold off'

A COUNCIL chief insisted today that closure of the day care centres was not a cost- cutting exercise.

Bill Hodson, director of housing and adult social services, said it was offering people a chance to influence how services could be changed, "so that the money the council has can be used to its best effect."

He also said he wanted to make it clear that Yearsley Bridge had not been sold.

"The council has said it wants to review the services we provide on that site," he said.

"My own view is that moving away from the buildings on the Yearsley Bridge site would give people opportunities that aren't available to them now, because those buildings are no longer suitable for the use they are put to. We reached a similar conclusion with Hebden Rise day centre several years ago, and replaced it with a new day centre at West Bank Park and a range of services tailored to meet the individual needs of our customers.

"We want to give people who use services on the Yearsley Bridge site the same opportunity."

He said the council was not rushing people because it wanted to "get it right.We don't anticipate all of these changes happening until May, 2008."

He said everyone using Yearsley Bridge Centre should now have received a letter inviting them to meetings in early December.

"We will be enabling each and every person to express their own views and wishes about how they want services to support their lives."