NORTH Dorset MP Simon Hoare has slammed plans that would see adult day centres in the county close.
In a letter, the Conservative MP called on Dorset Council to listen to those who would be most affected by the changes, with campaigners saying the plans would leave vulnerable people isolated.
This comes as Dorset Council launched a consultation on proposals to reorganise the way it delivers services for elderly residents and adults with special needs across the county, with it considering closing several centres and replacing these with a ‘hub and spokes’ model.
There are currently 11 day centres operating throughout the county – but only five would be retained under the new model.
These hubs would provide a place to meet friends and sign up for activities, while the ‘spokes’ would connect people to specialist services, community centres and groups.
Under the new plans, centres in Sherborne, Shaftesbury and Blandford would close, with Stour Connect in Sturminster Newton becoming the hub for north Dorset.
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The council said the proposals would give people greater choice and opportunity and reduce “the need for sometimes old and draughty buildings that are no longer fit for purpose.”
Doomed to fail
But Simon Hoare has said the plans to create a single hub model are “doomed to fail” as it fails to recognise public transport links – or lack thereof – across North Dorset.
He said: “The proposals as consulted upon are flawed, unworkable and doomed to fail some of the most vulnerable in my community based as they are on a lack of understanding as to how the North Dorset towns and villages have organised themselves over many years.
“A mono-hub approach located in Sturminster Newton cannot be considered as desirable or workable.”
He claims that a hub-and-spoke model is already in place in North Dorset, as Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Sturminster Newton hubs already cater to the surrounding villages.
He said that to try and focus adult day centre provision in Sturminster Newton would break this model in favour of one that would be for many “impossible to use” and that many users would simply drop out due to the service becoming too difficult to access.
He added: “The council must listen. It needs to ditch these plans and, instead of launching a radical consultation on unsuspecting communities, actually work with those communities to future-proof service provision for my constituents.”
“Relationships will be torn apart”
Many day centre users and their families got in touch with your New Blackmore Vale to express their shock and concern over the plans, as they say that the centres are not only well-used but are vital to users’ wellbeing.
This includes Dr Emma Briant, whose father attends the Shaftesbury Trinity Centre in Bimport.
She said her father is not in a position to drive to Sturminster Newton should the Trinity Centre close.
“It gives [my father] purpose, and joy, he feels useful and helpful,” she added.
“The day centre isn’t just about ‘activity provision’, it creates a close community of people with relationships, who care about each other, connections that revolve around meeting in that place every day… those relationships will be torn apart and lost if the council closes the day centre.
“They seem to think because these people are disabled and elderly, the continuity of their relationships is irrelevant. The people this will impact are terrified.”
Dorset Council says the proposals came about as a result of asking people who use these centres about their experiences, as they say many would like a “wider choice of local activities with more flexible options” as well as activities during the weekend and evenings.
People have until Monday (June 9) to have their say on the online consultation.
To view the consultation, click here or search https://consultation.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/c-e/dayopps/.
A petition calling for Dorset Council to reconsider their proposal has reached 2,475 signatures.
This is a backward step, and must be stopped ! !
Please do not close these vital life lines
The impact will be enormous and devastating beyond words. The ultimate cost to the communities need to be considered. Impact on the additional health care for example
Logic and reason must prevail here. Thank you.
This proposal is beyond stupid. It comes directly out of the 1970s “Big is Better” thinking, which is responsible for so many failures in our national infrastructure. There will be no “savings” made ever. Shifting the costs onto transport and making old and vulnerable people into “units” to be moved about, is a degrading and malevolent policy, with many expensive consequences. These are ignored by the political operators who dream up this nonsense.
It’s also a plan to progressively under resource the service and eventually outsource and abandon it to some corporate “care” organisation.
If the government and, increasingly distant, local authorities don’t want to do their duty by the population they should be honest enough to say so. Then we could save their bloated costs and reorganise amenities around truly local communities. There are plenty of competent people in most localities and for many the official pressure for big and specialist solutions to every issue is “the real problem”.