Queenborough's town mayor has labelled a decision to close a service for pensioners as "absolutely disgusting".

Cllr Jackie Constable said she was appalled at last week's decision not to reopen Age Concern Sheppey's Castlewell centre in Well Road.

She claims OAPs have relied on the service for the past 25 years.

According to the chairman, Adrian Crowther, trustees were forced to close the site permanently as it was costing too much to keep open.

He said Age Concern's bathing service would also be stopped in March.

Cllr Constable said after the centre closed in May due to staff illness, the news it would close permanently was not altogether a shock.

She said valuable services had been lost and many people would not be able to travel to the Sheerness branch.

"I am appalled that this decision has been taken," said Cllr Constable. "We knew it was going to happen when the centre closed in May.

"Our residents do not want to go to the Sheerness branch. This is not just a lunch club, it is everything else that goes with it and the regular users have lost so much through its closure."

Cllr Constable said around 20 people relied on the centre for podiatary and hearing aid services and said it was a way staff could make sure users were all right.

She said: "Sometimes elderly people can go days and days without seeing anyone and when they come to the centre you can at least see how they are. They have a social network at the centre and have been friends for years.

"I think it is absolutely disgusting. You don't want to get old in Queenborough because you will be shoved to Sheerness."

According to Cllr Crowther, the centre, which was one of three on the Island, was only being used by nine people from Queenborough.

He said: “When you work out the amount of money we were losing it is a lot. We had to look at the viability of Castlewell.

“I am upset that the home-bathing service will discontinue, it is a wicked situation, but again we just can’t afford to do it.”

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