Concerns over withdrawal of meals on wheels services

Gillian Ward said she wanted local authorities to be legally obliged to provide the service

Hundreds of pensioners are set to lose their meals on wheels service after the supplier said it was not viable to continue.

Apetito, which runs in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, says council cuts meant it could no longer make a profit.

Nineteen jobs at the firm are now at risk, it said.

Gillian Ward, whose mother uses the service, has started an online petition to try to make councils legally obliged to provide a meals on wheels service.

The service involves a hot meal being delivered by a DBS-checked Apetito staff member who also does a health and wellbeing check when inside people's homes.

It is due to be withdrawn in March in Gloucestershire and in May in Warwickshire after cuts to subsidies.

Ms Ward said her 95-year-old mother would really miss the service which she has used five days a week for the past four years.

"It's not just going to affect my mum, but hundreds of older, vulnerable people across Warwickshire that are not able to cook for themselves or use a microwave or heat up frozen meals if they're delivered," Ms Ward said.

"The alternatives we have been offered from the meals and wheels services are just not suitable for somebody like my mum."

Gillian Ward's mother Rose said she loved the service

Her mother Rose said she loved the visits.

"I think it's absolutely wonderful and I'm talking for old people like me who live alone and depend on them," she said.

"Of all the things they could have taken off, that's the worst thing they could have done."

Ms Ward said she had contacted her MP in Rugby, Mark Pawsey, who had written to the minister for social care to ask for the government to consider a hot meal delivery service to become a local authority statutory service requirement.

Her petition had garnered more than 500 signatures in just over a week, she said.

In response, Gloucestershire County Council said it was attempting to arrange an alternative service for its 400 users, while Warwickshire said it had not been able to.

Warwickshire County Council, which also has 400 customers, has offered takeaways or frozen meals instead, but Ms Ward said these were not suitable.

Apetito told BBC News it was sad to be stopping the service, but the new contracts from the councils substantially cut the number of meals to be provided which made the service unviable.

The firm said it was no longer viable to provide meals on wheels