A PLANNED 7.5 per cent price increase for Meals on Wheels in Caerphilly County Borough should be slashed by more than half, councillors have said, after concerns were raised about the impact on the most vulnerable.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s draft budget includes plans to increase prices in its Meals Direct service - more commonly known as Meals on Wheels - by 7.5 per cent. This would mean prices would increase from £5.65 to £5.90 per meal, or from £3.30 to £3.55 for those on the subsidised rate.

But now the council's Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee has said this increase should be slashed to three per cent, while meal prices in the authority's staff canteen should be increased by 4.5 per cent - up from a proposed three per cent - to make up the shortfall.

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Meals Direct is a service provided to the housebound. Subsidised meals are provided for those unable to prepare meals themselves, where no one is available to provide meals for them and where there is a “significant risk” if regular meals are not provided.

A report on the public impact savings analysis into the proposal said: “The service is designed to meet various needs of its customers.

“We work very closely with social services and Information Assistance and Advice (Social Services) who offer a variety of alternatives to the Meals Direct service.

“Very often it is the most vulnerable and needy members of the borough that access the service as no suitable alternative is available to meet their needs of a hot meal delivered daily.

“We must not underestimate the value of this service to members of our communities especially those who are frail and vulnerable who often refer to this service as the fourth emergency service.”

In the council’s special policy and resources scrutiny committee Cllr Elaine Forehead asked: “Do we really want to put added pressure on the most vulnerable people by increasing meals by seven per cent?”

Cllr Forehead suggested lowering the increase in price for Meals Direct, while increasing the staff canteen prices, saying she felt it was not fair that staff would see a lower increase than service users.

The council’s interim head of business improvement services Steve Harris said that the council had increased staff meal prices by five per cent in the past without too much of a problem.

The committee agreed on a proposal to “Increase Meals Direct by three per cent and meals in the staff canteen by 4.5 per cent so that there’s greater parity, and it’s (the proposed Meals Direct increase) more in line with inflation.”