NEWPORT'S meals on wheels service is not in the firing line for cuts, it was confirmed yesterday.

Paul Cockeram, cabinet member for adult and housing services, reassured colleagues at a full meeting of Newport City Council there are no plans to cut the subsidised hot meals service.

Last week the Argus reported he wanted to look into replacing the service with elderly visiting and social contact to benefit more people for the same cost - £60,000 a year.

He said that with just 50 or 60 users it was time to ask whether the money spent subsidising the meals could be better spent.

But yesterday Councillor Cockeram denied these plans and said any planned elderly services were as an addition to meals on wheels and not as a replacement.

He said: "There is no question of doing away with meals on wheels. "As long as we still have the present numbers of 50-60 it will be kept." He said: "I feel I was misrepresented in the Argus report. What I told them was that I wanted to help people who were socially isolated."

Last year Newport city council's plans to scrap meals on wheels met with anger from volunteer providers and the elderly who used the service. The idea was eventually dropped.