Elderly residents at Willowmere Extra Care in Middlewich who are losing their restaurant next month will be able to order hot meals from a charity home delivery service as an interim measure.

As previously reported, the current restaurant service is provided by Cheshire East's school meals catering service and the residents pay £6 per meal.

But the council, which has been subsidising the loss-making school meals service, is closing the restaurant on January 3.

Yesterday (Thursday) Dan Coyne, head of service for integrated commissioning at Cheshire East, visited Willowmere to discuss the interim alternative provision which will be offered by the Crewe-based charity, The Wishing Well.

This will be in place until the end of May.

Mr Coyne gave a presentation which showed the cash-strapped council has been subsidising Willowmere to the tune of £81,312.

The council makes a decision on its budget in February, which may mean less money for the service, and then a longer-term solution for meals at Willowmere could be looked at.

The presentation slides to Willowmere, which the council provided to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after the meeting, stated: "The council are working with a voluntary sector provider to offer a hot, nutritious meal and bring the community together at Willowmere from Monday January 6, 2025 until the end of May 2025."

"Wishing Well will offer a daily hot, nutritious meal delivery service five to six days per week.

"In addition, they will also offer two activity sessions per week to address the resident survey feedback about bringing the community together."

It continued: "Residents will be able to order a hot meal, this will be delivered to Willowmere, Monday to Friday each week. Extra can be ordered on the Friday to be re-heated for the Saturday.

"This hot, nutritious meal delivery is chargeable to residents at £5.60 per day for hot meal and dessert.

"The activity sessions that aim to bring the community together will be chargeable and will be open to everyone."

The LDRS approached Middlewich councillor Carol Bulman (Lab), who was not at the meeting, for a comment about the proposal.

Cllr Bulman said: "It's sad to lose a facility for the community but, as the service was no longer economic, Cheshire East found itself unable to subsidise this service.

"It was connected to the school meals service and because of a reduced number of schools opting for our catering service it became a loss-maker.

"It is the loss of the opportunity to socialise that we need to work on."