Cheshire East is to carry out a full review of meal service provision for elderly residents living in Oakmere and Willowmere after councillors criticised 'major failures' in the way it closed their restaurants.

The meals at Oakmere Extra Care in Handforth and Willowmere in Middlewich were provided by Cheshire East's school meals catering service.

But last April the children and families committee (C&F) agreed to close the loss-making service, saying it could no longer afford to subsidise it.

The elderly people affected were not consulted and only learned of the decision months later.

They had been paying £6 for a hot, nutritious meal, unaware they were subsidised.

Now, as an interim measure, their meals are delivered by two charities based in Knutsford and Crewe.

Today (Monday) Beryl Chapman, chair of Oakmere Residents Association, asked members of the adults and health committee, why, if the service was losing money, the council had that not looked at that earlier.

"We would have willingly paid the going rate if we had been aware of it to keep this important community asset," said Mrs Chapman, who travelled to the Crewe meeting with several Oakmere residents.

She told the committee the closure of the restaurant at the beginning of January had also affected elderly residents in the wider Handforth community.

"Our restaurant has been the hub of the Handforth community for so many years," said Mrs Chapman. "But the sadness and loneliness this closure will cause to so many is unimaginable to comprehend."

She added: "We need our food cooked on the premises as was promised all those years ago [when Oakmere was built], and we now feel the soul has been ripped out of Oakmere and our community by this devastating decision."

Knutsford councillor Stewart Gardiner (Con) said there appeared to have been 'a major failure within the council to actually manage the situation'.

He said he knew, when he was a school governor more than two years ago, the school meals service was finding it difficult to make ends meet, so why hadn't the council considered earlier the impact on these elderly people.

Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury, Con) said: "My concern is that we have not done this well… and there are lessons that must be learned from this."

She said when the decision was made by C&F in April 'I don't think, at that point, people had really appreciated what catering services in extra care homes really mean in terms of social value, as well as nutrition'.

Committee members were also concerned to hear that, as part of the interim arrangements, the meals were only delivered weekdays.

Weekend meals were delivered on Fridays and residents had to re-heat them.

They asked for this to be looked at as part of the review, expressing concern that some people might not be able to do this.

A report will be presented to the committee again in September once the full review has taken place.