Cheshire East has been criticised by its own lawyer for closing the school meals service without the relevant committee considering the impact it would have on elderly people who relied on it.

The council's children and families committee (C&F) agreed last April to close the loss-making service, saying it could no longer afford to subsidise it.

But several members of that committee later argued they were not made aware of the impact this would have on the elderly residents at Oakmere Extra Care in Handforth and Willowmere in Middlewich, whose meals were provided by Cheshire East's school meals catering service.

A reference in the report to C&F merely stated 'separate discussions are ongoing with adult services in relation to the extra care housing service'.

Following furious criticism by some councillors, the decision-making process itself has now been looked at by acting monitoring officer Janet Witkowski.

Some of the residents at Oakmere in Handforth who will be affected by the closure of their restaurant (Belinda Ryan, LDRS).

A report to next week's meeting of the audit and governance committee, states: "Having reviewed the process and governance arrangements, the monitoring officer is of the opinion that the matter should have been formally reported to the adults and health committee at some point as part of the decision-making process.

"This did not happen and whilst this does not mean the decision was unlawful or that there was maladministration, as a decision was not made outside of its remit, assurance is required that this will not happen again."

The closure of the restaurants at Oakmere and Willowmere and the introduction of a short-term interim meals service, was finally brought to the adults and health committee in January of this year – nine months after C&F took the decision to scrap the service and two weeks after the restaurants at the two extra care facilities had already closed.

The report to next week's meeting of audit and governance, states: "The subsequent report in January 2025 did appropriately go to adults and health committee and did indicate the error that had been made in not advising the committee about the matter at an earlier juncture.

"It is also only at that time when a formal decision was required on that provision and that did go to the correct committee, as the extra care catering clearly sits within that committee's remit."

Willowmere At Middlewich (Google).

As reported previously by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the elderly people affected were not consulted by anyone at the council at the time it was being discussed by C&F and only learned of the decision months later.

It came as a complete shock to them because they had been paying £6 for a hot, nutritious meal, unaware they were being subsidised.

Now, as an interim measure, their meals are delivered by two charities based in Knutsford and Crewe.

Meanwhile Cheshire East is to carry out a full review of meal service provision for those elderly residents after councillors at January's adults and health committee criticised 'major failures' in the way the council had closed their restaurants.

The meeting of the audit and governance committee takes place on Monday 31 March,, at 1pm at Macclesfield Town Hall.

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