5:01pm Thursday 4th June 2009
A public meeting has been called as part of the fight to save a Redruth specialist day care centre for adults with learning difficulties.
The Murdoch and Trevithick Centre on Lower Cardew Lane provides activities and specialist care for people who need a high level of support.
The council has said it plans to close the centre by 2011, sparking fury among parents and carers.
The council has said that the closures are about “new opportunities for people and not separating people with learning disabilities from the rest of the community and that they were “committed to improving the way it supports people with learning disabilities in Cornwall”.
A council spokesman said: "Resources are available to support the creation of new facilities that will be needed for people who require them.
"The outcome from this process will be new arrangements that are community based, that support inclusion and that work in partnership with other people and organisations who can help."
Brenda Coleman, whose 38 year old daughter has used the centre for years, slammed the decision.
She said: “We need the public’s help to overturn this decision.
“A lot of the people who use it have been there for years. It is their life.”
She said that while they were not against progress, the council’s proposals simply would not work.
“Care in the community has not worked in the past. I can see this going back to as it was in my mothers time when they were put in a back room with a blanket, out of sight and forgotten.”
The meeting is scheduled for 10.30am on June 11 at Redruth Rugby Club.
A packed public meeting in St Austell on April 30, saw angry parents voicing their disgust at the plans. They vowed to take legal action against the closure, and the planned closure of two other centres in St Austell and Liskeard.
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