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COMMUNITY meal funding throughout Worcestershire is to be reviewed just months after subsidies were withdrawn forcing the closure of a number of luncheon clubs including several in the Vale.

Worcestershire County Council has decided to set up a task group looking at meal provision for older and vulnerable adults following a meeting last week.

Cllr Peter Pinfield, the authority's Champion for Older People, proposed the move as public opposition to the money-saving efforts grew.

In August last year, as the council announced cuts which would close a number of luncheon clubs including Cherry Orchard in Pershore, it announced that savings of more than £6.3 million were required and that subsidising lunch clubs was viewed as a costly way of meeting nutritional needs.

Pershore protestor Tony Welch pointed out that the effect of subsity withdrawal would be to increase the cost of a meal from £3.20 to £7.

He added: "Lots of old people rely on these lunch clubs to get one good meal a day. If they didn't get that, they wouldn't be able to eat healthily."

But last week councillors agreed that very sheltered housing lunch clubs represent only a small area of the county council's meals provision and the Overview and Scrutiny Steering Committee wanted to look at the fuller picture.

The task group will look at how meals are provided, who receives them and why. It will also seek to ascertain how meals are funded and how much the council is prepared or able to put into meal provision.

It will also compare Worcestershire with other areas and look for possible alternative solutions and try to determine whether the provision of meals fits within the overall care services offered to older people.

Cllr Pinfield said: "It's very clear that there is a much wider picture that just the meals provided to very sheltered accommodation.

"There are so many different organisations involved, such as voluntary sector associations, we need to give everyone else in the county council a broad overview of exactly what we do in this area."

12:37pm Monday 24th March 2008

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