Story: Rachael Pearson
The council has agreed that it will begin consultations to close down the Norbury Dementia Resource Centre in Burngreave.
It will take the council six weeks to finish the process and if plans are approved then the centre could close down as early as March 2013.
A report was presented to the council at the cabinet meeting on 31st October. It said that the council would save over £800,000 a year by closing down the Norbury and Bole Hill View centres.
However, councillors claimed that this would not mean that people would get any less care. Richard Webb, Director of Communities said: “What we want to emphasise is that people getting support now will get no less support in the future.”
He added the council wanted to concentrate on making it easier for dementia suffers to stay in their communities – which includes plans to make shops more accessible.
In 2010, there were 6,137 people living with dementia in Sheffield.
When the City Council’s budget was released in March 2012 it stated that spending on frontline care services was to be maintained, but plans to close up to three centres were also included. Carers and health workers went to the budget meeting in March 2012 to make objections, however the plan is still to close 2 of the 3 centres.
If you are affected by the proposed closure, we would like to hear from you. Contact the Messenger on 242 0564 or mail@burngreavemessenger.org