A plan has been agreed to terminate three council-run day facilities for disabled people and replace them with alternative providers.
West Berkshire Council intends to save £469,000 by altering or closing the facilities in Calcot, Newbury, and Hungerford, but opponents claim they are overcrowded.
The council’s leader, Jeff Brooks, stated that the cash-strapped body must consider ways to offer services “more efficiently and economically”.
However, users, family, and a trade union told the BBC that the proposals were shortsighted.
Adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and dementia use Greenfield House in Calcot, Hungerford Resource Centre, and The Phoenix Centre in Newbury, respectively.
Iain Cottingham, the council’s executive member for finance, stated that it will conduct a “detailed review” of them “to ensure that any alternative provision delivers the same level of service to users”.
The council will receive £16 million in emergency cash from the government, but Cottingham stated that this does not imply it can be spent on sustaining the status quo.
“We have to show that we are prepared to find efficiencies,” Brooks told reporters.
“If we are unable to provide day centers as well as other providers, we will maintain the current service.” However, it is appropriate to consider other options.”
The Green Party’s group leader, David Marsh, claimed the authority’s proposal for “high quality services” through the proposed savings was “vague and aspirational rather than realistic”.
Conservative party leader Ross Mackinnon claimed it had been “prepared very shoddily” and the way it had been announced to workers and users had “caused distress”.
The day centres proposal is part of West Berkshire Council’s budget for 2025/26, which also includes a 4.99% increase in residents’ council tax in April.
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