COUNCILLORS are set to discuss the future of a Newport day centre under threat of closure.

Members of Newport City Council’s cabinet meeting are due to meet on Tuesday to decide whether to approve recommendations to close Ladyhill Day Centre and provide alternative services for users elsewhere in the city.

Ladyhill Day Centre, in Always, is used by 138 of the city’s most vulnerable residents including dementia sufferers, wheelchair users and the elderly, and costs the council £543,000 a year to run, but the centre needs £1million of repairs.

Service users at the centre fear other centres will not have the facilities for all users and fear being split up from friends they have made at Ladyhill. Residents and local councillors are backing a campaign to save it.

A report due to be presented to councillors at Tuesday’s meeting details how day services in Newport could be provided more effectively and closer to people’s homes.

According to a council spokeswoman the new proposals will give “more flexibility and make different types of activities possible.”

The spokeswoman added that people with dementia will be able to receive care from support units at Spring Gardens in Pill and Hillside in the Gaer.

Service users with complex physical needs would be catered for under proposals to expand and develop existing facilities at Parklands Residential Home in Malpas.

Stuart Greenwell, Newport council’s care and customers corporate director, said: “We appreciate people’s concerns about the closure of a facility that they have been using for a number of years and we will give everyone the change to experience alternative arrangements before any closure happens.”

A council spokeswoman said the building was no longer fit for purpose and service users’ needs would be “better met in settings which are more modern and user friendly.”