Ten elderly and disabled people will be attending Cheshire East's adults and health committee meeting next week demanding answers over the decision to close their meals service.

Many of the residents, who all live at Oakmere Extra Care in Handforth, had moved into the facility because of its restaurant service, which provided them with a hot, nutritious meal every day.

They paid £6 for a meal cooked on the premises by Cheshire East's school meals catering service.

But in April last year, the council's children and families committee agreed to close the loss-making service, saying it could no longer afford to subsidise it.

This came after consulting with schools – but the council had not spoken to the elderly people impacted and the first they knew of it was several months later after the decision had been taken.

The Oakmere restaurant closed on Friday 3 January.

The Oakmere restaurant closed on Friday 3 January (Google).

As an interim measure residents can now pay £6.50 for a meal to be delivered from the Welcome Café in Knutsford.

But they say because of the travelling time, the meals require re-heating which some people, particularly those with dementia or disabilities, are unable to do.

Beryl Chapman, chair of the residents' association, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service today (Thursday 16 January): "The meals are nice but we can't have this forever.

"Some people who can't heat up the meals themselves are having to pay extra for carers to do it."

She said this could be as much as an extra £100 a week for some.

"One lady was crying," said Beryl. "She said, we can't go out and get a job to help us financially. How are we expected to pay the extra to have hot meals?"

Beryl Chapman, Oakmere

Beryl said the restaurant had been the social hub at Oakmere.

"The change in Oakmere is really noticeable," she said. "It's become like a wilderness.

"Last week, nobody came downstairs [from their flats] there was no social life. I felt like the place was an empty shell, it was echoing."

She said already she had noticed people deteriorating.

"I've always said loneliness kills and I think this could be the case here," she added.

The Oakmere residents had never been told the service was subsidised.

Beryl said: "We never asked for this subsidy."

She said residents would have paid the full meal price to keep the restaurant open if they had known.

Cheshire East has been heavily criticised for the way it took this decision – including by its some of own councillors.

The children and families committee was told in the report paper, on the day it made the decision in April, that 'separate discussions are ongoing with adult services in relation to the extra care housing service'.

Some councillors later told the LDRS they believed this meant their decision would not impact the elderly.

The council's officers also discussed the matter with schools and then fed back the headteachers' comments to the committee.

The elderly people were not consulted before the decision was made.

The adults and health committee is due to discuss future options for extra care catering at its meeting on Monday 20 January, which takes place at Crewe Municipal Buildings at 10am.

Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Nub News provides updates to local residents in the town.

Free from clickbait, pop-up ads and unwanted surveys, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

Please consider following Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Nub News on Facebook.