NEW charges coming in July for day-care centres have shocked and angered families who use them in Bridport.

The fees, of up to £22.41 a session, will affect the elderly and adults with learning disabilities attending Dorset County Council day centres.

The services are currently free.

Carole and Terence Harper have been told their 38-year-old handicapped daughter Karen will have to pay £22.41 at the adult centre in Flood Lane, Bridport – with transport and meals not included.

Karen has a rare genetic condition which means she is nearly blind, has scoliosis of the spine and a mental age of 12.

Karen lives in her own house with carers but goes to the centre five days a week.

Mr Harper said councillors should be ashamed of targeting the most vulnerable in society.

Mrs Harper added: “Karen can’t be left on her own. She has been going there since she was 18.

“I know they have to take money from somewhere. People are on about the libraries but surely these people are more important?

“They are so vulnerable and there is nobody really to stand up for them and nobody seems to care.”

Mrs Harper added: “If Karen doesn’t go, where is she going to meet her friends? The only friends she has in the world are there.”

The move comes under the authority’s transforming social care agenda. It was drawn up before it decided to make the current multi-million-pound budget cuts to such services as libraries and school crossing patrols.

Noreen Seal’s daughter Mali, 21, goes to the Fisherman’s Arms day centre in South Street.

She said that although they were able to afford the charges as Mali only goes twice a week, others were not so lucky.

She said: “There are a lot of people who go there who are a lot worse than Mali. I can’t believe they would be that cruel. Mali has epilepsy and Asperger’s and it is a lifeline because around here there is not a lot of places that would accommodate her for her condition.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to do this.”

Coun Karl Wallace warned that worse could be to come.

“Charges will deter day centre users.

“Almost certainly, the council will then announce that there is reduced need, and closure of the day centres will follow.”

Under the new system people who are eligible for social care payments will be given money in a lump sum and then have to decide what to spend it on.

Others who have savings or can afford it under means-testing will be asked to pay or contribute to their care costs – such as the £22.41 day centre charge.

A county council spokesman said no one would be charged for services they cannot afford, and charges will only be payable when an individual’s needs and ability to pay have been assessed.

At the moment people are charged for home care, transport and respite care but not for the use of council day centres.

Andrew Cattaway, the county council’s cabinet member for adult social care, said: “It is clearly unfair that people who can afford to pay are charged for care in the home, but not at a day centre. “Consultation with the public showed the vast majority of people agreed it was fair to charge for day care activities.”

The council estimates only 12 per cent of people will have to pay the full cost.

Mr Cattaway added the new system would give people more choice.

The county will review the level of demand next spring.

PENSIONER Anna Lovell, 72, a board member of the 50plus Forum, said the rise in costs will hit hard.

She stressed: “Going to a day centre five days a week would cost more than the state pension.”

Mrs Lovell said there didn’t seem to be the political will to safeguard the welfare of the most vulnerable people. She added: “Dorset County Council hasn’t said to the public what are your feelings on this.

“For the people they serve day centres are a lifesaver, whether it is giving the person cared for a change or giving respite for the carer – because if you wear your carers out you finish up with two casualties.”