Local MP Tom Gordon has called for changes to North Yorkshire Council’s Lifeline service to be put on hold until residents have been consulted.
The MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough has written to the leader of North Yorkshire Council alongside 10 Liberal Democrat councillors, raising concerns about plans to withdraw the service's Warden Responders.
Lifeline is a 24-hour monitored alarm service designed to support elderly, disabled and vulnerable residents living independently.
Under changes approved by the council, the Warden Responder service – which sees council staff attend a resident's home following an alarm – is set to be withdrawn.
Routine contact for users in the Harrogate, Richmondshire and Selby areas is also set to change from monthly or quarterly visits to a single annual check, while fees will be standardised across North Yorkshire.
Mr Gordon and the councillors claim the changes were agreed without consultation with people who use the service and have raised concerns that removing responders could result in more incidents being passed to the emergency services.
They have asked the council to pause implementation and consult Lifeline users, their families and carers.
They are also calling for equality and health impact assessments to be published and for formal consultation with Yorkshire Ambulance Service, North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Integrated Care Board.
Mr Gordon said:
“Lifeline is not a gadget on the wall. For a lot of my constituents, it is the reason they can carry on living in their own home. Taking away the responder service and cutting contact to once a year is a significant change to people’s lives, and those people were never asked.
“When we were forced into this new single North Yorkshire Council we were promised a consistent standard across North Yorkshire. Residents warned at the time that this harmonisation would turn out to be code for levelling down to the cheapest option available. On Lifeline, that fear has been proved right.”
The group has also questioned why standardising the service means reducing provision in areas where Lifeline currently operates rather than extending it to areas including Craven, Hambleton and Scarborough.
Mr Gordon has requested a meeting with the council leader, executive members and service directors to discuss the issue.
Councillor Peter Lacey, leader of the Liberal Democrat and Liberal Group on North Yorkshire Council, said:
“This decision was taken without asking a single one of the people who depend on the service, and when we called it in, the referral to full Council was lost by one vote in circumstances that leave real doubt over whether that vote was sound.
“The least the Council can do is pause, publish the impact assessment, and let people have their say before the responders are taken away.”
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