THE Brightwells Gostrey Centre is being forced to cut the number of days it can help Farnham's most vulnerable elderly people because of a massive reduction in a grant it receives. From November 6, the centre will no longer be able to cater on Mondays for high need clients - the most frail elderly, who are often confused or are living alone. The centre's main funding from Waverley Borough Council, which amounts to £43,000 this year, is not affected. But a grant from the Waverley Voluntary Grants Panel, which pools funds from the borough council, health and social services, has been slashed from £34,400 last year to £22,000 this year. The allocation amounts to less than half the amount applied for to specifically fund therapeutic and respite services. Around 50 people attend the centre on an average weekday and about half that number will be affected. The centre's chairman, Stephen Inman, said: "We are very reluctant indeed to withdraw Mondays from our high-need clients because the need for our services is growing. "But such a large reduction in our funding is bound to have consequences," he said. The former hospital consultant who has also been a volunteer driver, collecting centre- goers from their homes, added that some vulnerable old people would be forced to stay at home, where they are often lonely and confused. Maggie Groves, centre manager, said that in her 12 years at the centre, the number of people suffering from dementia had risen, along with the age of the population. "This is a very sociable place here. We don't do anything in a medical sense," she said, adding that nevertheless she saw the work as helping to enable people to live independently a little longer. "We have designed a programme to try to stimulate them, for instance through a group crossword or wordsearch. It does work, helping those with memory loss to retain their memory a bit longer." As well as a daily lunch, services on offer include exercise sessions tailored to the individual, healthy eating advice, chiropody and hairdressing services. Mrs Groves said that although it was "awful" that funding had been cut, the centre had received warning. "Funding is scarce, it is scarce for all of us." She said it was important that centre users should not panic. Where possible, it will be arranged for them to attend on a different day or for them to go elsewhere. And a new service has opened in Ash to cater for mentally frail older people, and people who were referred to the Brightwells Gostrey in the past can now be referred there for a specialist service. Pat Frost, a councillor on the grants panel that made the funding decision, said she was sad that there had been a reduction. "There is a limited amount of money to go around and more applications for grants for old people," she explained. Mrs Frost said that with the Gostrey Centre taking on more and more frail people and needing to provide more staff, the panel had felt funding should be provided by another source - perhaps the adults and community care budget. The reduction in funding has proved a catalyst for a rethink on the type of services that the centre does provide. To fill the gap left at the centre on Mondays, it is hoped to attract more elderly folk to the social activities on offer by organising a roast lunch each Monday from October 30. In the long term it is hoping to attract more active retired people aged in their 50s upwards. A leaflet canvassing opinion on what sort of courses and activities would be attractive is currently being circulated. Among the options being considered are creative writing, dance and drama, photography and family history. Mrs Groves said the change of emphasis was linked to the promise of new premises in connection with the East Street regeneration. The new building will be more of a community facility and will be used by a greater cross- section of the community. "We are in a very uncertain position because we are in the East Street scheme and the whole centre has been marking time until we have a new building. "We have not been expanding as maybe we might have. Now, because we can't keep waiting for East Street to happen, we are making that move."
