MP calls for Meals on Wheels rethink

Sep 30 2008 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

MP Gordon Banks yesterday called on Perth and Kinross Council to rethink their changes to the local Meals on Wheels service.

Last Tuesday, the PA highlighted the local authority’s new strategy to deliver hot meals to the elderly.

The council has sealed a deal with Wiltshire Farm Foods to deliver frozen microwaveable dishes for freezers every two weeks.

The council insists it will add up to “more meals for more people with more choice.”

But yesterday Mr Banks, who represents Ochil and South Perthshire, expressed hostility to the changes after many years of daily deliveries of hot meals.

Mr Banks said: “This smacks of a purely financial decision with little regard to pensioners across Perth and Kinross who rely on this vital service.

“The Meals on Wheels service has operated effectively for years and many older people rely on it.

“This new cost-cutting exercise by the council will not only put our older people’s health at risk but it will socially disadvantage them too.

“The service is not only about providing healthy warm meals but also about providing a regular point of contact for some of the most vulnerable people in our society – this vital link is now lost.

“Without these regular visits how can we be sure that our older people are eating regularly or cooking their meals properly? Can we even say with any certainty that all pensioners have a microwave, and if they do, can they use it?

“I am really appalled by this decision and urge the council to reconsider.”