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Pensioners at Drovers centre. “Every time they make cuts it attacks the elderly,” said one |
‘Will day centre bus cut leave us stuck at home?’
Pensioners fear Town Hall economies will end daily trips
EVERY morning Violet Smith listens out for the bus that will take her to Drovers day centre in North Road, Holloway.
One of a cheerful group of elderly pensioners, the 84-year-old looks forward to bingo, singing classes and computer lessons. After three recent operations, she relies on the free bus service to take her from her home on the Barnsbury estate to the centre.
But that could all be about to change after the Town Hall announced it is to axe funding for one of the two Age Concern buses the pensioners use.
Ms Smith said: “What this will mean is that the numbers at the day centre will drop and they could end up shutting the place down. Where are our taxes going? They shouldn’t be making cuts here. I wouldn’t leave my home if there was no bus for me.”
The council insists many able-bodied pensioners are capable of taking public transport or walking to day centres.
Lib Dem adult social care chief Councillor John Gilbert said: “There are clearly some people for whom we’re providing transport at the moment who can get there by other means. There are four day centres in the borough, two run by Islington and two by Age Concern.
“Islington only has one bus and Age Concern has two. In the council’s case we make two journeys. It’s a more efficient use of the service. I don’t think people are really going to suffer seriously.”
But the Age Concern bus is seen as a vital link even by people who live near day centres, such as Lillian Parnell, 76, from the Shearling Way estate in Holloway.
She is too scared to use normal buses after breaking her knee as she tried to board one last year and has filed a complaint with the council after falling on the pavement.
“This day centre is so important to us,” she said. “I have worked since I was 14 and this is how I am treated? Old people like us worked so the younger generation could live in a better place. Every time they make cuts it attacks the elderly.”
Dolly Paul, 78, who lives minutes from the Drovers Centre, has been told by her doctor she should not walk in the street. “I have lost all confidence in walking,” she said. “I have had a series of falls. Just the other day I fell in the street. I don’t want to be stuck on my own at home.”
Age Concern Islington chief executive Deborah Fowler said: “Transport is already a problem. We have had cases where social workers wanted to refer people to the day centres and we want to take them but there’s no space.
“Having only one bus can dramatically reduce the amount of time people can stay at a day centre and the journey can be intolerably long. In terms of making apparently efficient use of transport, the danger is you make less efficient use of the centres because people are spending less time at them.”
The money saved – £50,000 from the Age Concern bus – will contribute to the council’s planned £240 million spending programme, agreed at the executive last night (Thursday).
Youth services face a £40,000 cut, which will mean the loss of 11 minibuses.
Refugee and dementia day services will be reduced and the cost of meals-on-wheels will rise by 5p as the council hopes to save £8 million.
Cutting two editions of a staff newsletter and reducing printing costs of other internal publications will save a further £20,000.
Other economies involve cutting a member of staff from the refugee integration service and saving £12,000 by stopping the use of a university-run external evaluation service. |
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