Meal on wheels to top £1k a year

The cost of meals on wheels for pensioners in Walsall is to

rise to more than £1,000 a year for some customers.

Walsall Council is to increase the price of a single meal from £2.49 to £2.75, in a bid to bring in £81,334 over the next three years.

The increase is detailed in the forthcoming year's budget plans for the council. It would mean that pensioners who have one meal every day of the year would pay £1,003.75. Today, Age Concern criticised the move and said that it could lead to some people cancelling their daily meal.

Lesley Shaw, information officer for Age Concern Walsall, said: "This is going to make it a real struggle for a lot of people on top of the transport charge as well.

"A lot of elderly people have to pay something towards their homecare.

"Meals on wheels is an added cost on top of this, and then they have the transport charge as well.

"It is worrying, and some may have to cancel meals on wheels, which makes you wonder where they are going to get their proper food from."

The council needs to save £12million over the next 12 months.

Other cost-cutting measures which are set to be approved include cutting back on library opening hours and axing 50 council posts.

It follows a controversial transport charge of £4 to ferry elderly and disabled people to and from day centres in the borough.

No-one from Walsall Council was available to comment today.

Dudley Council is already phasing out its meals on wheels service after orders dropped following a price increase. Council bosses have warned that the service could be phased out sooner than planned because of a sharp fall in demand.

A total of 208 elderly people use the service after the council increased prices by 37 per cent – from £2.55 to £3.50 – on September 1.

Walsall's cost-cutting plans also include closing the popular Grange Golf Course, a proposal that has angered users.

But council leader John O'Hare said there was scope for a private company to take it over.