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9:45am Sunday 23rd March 2008

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A VITAL voice for older people in York could be silenced if the city council fails to provide more money.

The Older People's Assembly has been running for five years and helps advise City of York Council and York and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) on issues affecting the elderly.

But now assembly chairman Don Parlabean has sent out a stark message to the council to come up with funding or face the prospect that the assembly could fold within the year.

Mr Parlabean said that if the group was forced to close, the council would have to waste thousands of pounds setting up an alternative advisory body.

He said: "We were originally set up by the council and the PCT, which both contributed about £15,000. We used to have somebody working full time for about two years setting up the organisation, but at the end of that time the council stopped the majority of its funding.

"What they wanted to do was run us with a councillor as our chairman, but we refused their offer, because as an organisation the Government intended us to be older people giving a voice for people from the same age group.

"We are old enough and wise enough to speak for ourselves.

"Now the situation is that they use us an advisory body all the time, but are not prepared to pay to keep us going. The message is simple - pay up or lose us.

"If they don't have us they'll be going against Government guidelines and would have to spend considerably more money setting up another organisation in our place."

Mr Parlabean said at the moment the assembly, which is run entirely by volunteers and has around 300 members, has got £3,000 from the PCT and about £1,000 in small grants from the council.

He claims between £18,000 and £20,000 is required to maintain the current level of service and Mr Parlabean says he would like to expand it out into the community.

He said: "We have about 300 members but we have many more people in care homes and people who can't come into meetings in the city.

"I would like to be able to set up smaller groups so they have somewhere to go in their local community if they can no longer drive or get on a bus into the city."

Council leader Steve Galloway said: "In the past the council hasn't been able, because of its limited budget, to sponsor the assembly as is the case with many other organisations.

"The assembly's grant will be carefully considered along with the many other applications we receive."

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Does York need a strong voice for older people?