There were calls for action after it was revealed another day centre had to put out buckets when it rained
A once-loved centre that was left to fall into a state of disrepair will be sold off as councillors warned “the chickens have come home to roost.”
The Heswall Day Centre on Telegraph Road was one of nine facilities providing adult social care services during the day in Wirral. It shut its doors last year due to a heating failure with the building left in a dilapidated condition.
The service helped support 52 adults who have since been moved to other facilities. A survey carried out by Wirral Council found it would cost at least £500,000 to bring it back into use and £5.6m for a full refurbishment, something the cash-strapped authority said it can’t afford.
Now following a decision by councillors, the centre will be sold off and never reopen. The local authority said it would work with families and volunteers who had invested £19,000 into the centre’s garden to relocate this to other centres and put it to good use as well as focus on making sure the day centre service was fit for the future.
A council report published ahead of the committee on June 10 said the building faced problems with asbestos and after the heating failure, further investigations were needed which involved digging up the floor. The report said there were no other reasonable options for the centre other than selling it.
Cllr Phil Gilchrist, who is one of Wirral’s longest serving councillors, said the situation was the reality of savings the council had to make over the years to its budget telling the committee “the chickens have come home to roost because over the years to maintain staff and support, we have made savings with the buildings.”
During the meeting, it was highlighted by Jenny Carter, a disability advocate, that Heswall was not alone in its problems pointing to Eastham’s day centre which has to put lines of buckets out when it rains. This prompted calls for action as Cllr Graeme Cooper said it was not an acceptable situation.
Questions were also raised about when the council began considering the centre for sale after Peter Linnane, whose son Mark used the centre, pointed out they had finished renovating the garden just one month before it closed. Officers assured councillors the current situation at Heswall was not something they had anticipated last year.
Cllr Mike Sullivan, pointing to Pensby Wood centre which has had significant investment, said there needed to be more centres like that, adding: “The [Heswall] building is no longer fit for purpose. It would cost so much money to try and put it back into a good state of repair that it’s not viable.
“We as a community must do everything we can within budget constraints to look at Pensby as the centre of excellence that it is and look to expand that right across the Wirral.”
Cllr Kieran Murphy said several centres were in a dilapidated state and questioned why the centre’s condition was never brought up in the budget discussions earlier this year. He suggested his party, the Greens, would have opposed it if it had been.
He said the situation could have been handled better, adding: “If this was a planned closure, the reality is it’s a knee jerk reaction to a financial situation and the result of decades of neglect of the buildings.”
Cllr Simon Mountney said he took on board some of the concerns raised about relocation but added councillors had to “balance that against the financial situation we find ourselves in.” Promises were made to meet with both disability campaigners as well as Mr Linnane following the meeting.
The value of the land was not revealed at the meeting and any money generated from a sale could not automatically go to other day centres. However officers said there would be bids for investment in the future as well as proposals to modernise the service later this year.
Council officers also said there was capacity in the centres to deal with increased demand and there had been no reduction in people’s care as a result of any moves from Heswall. They said there had been one to one meetings with families and carers throughout the process.
