ELDERLY users of another day centre are fighting plans to change the way they are run.

More than 150 people have signed a petition against the changes at Bicester’s Launton Road Resource and Wellbeing centre, which has been running for 30 years.

Oxfordshire County Council plans to invite private companies and charities to run its seven day centres.

Their opposition follows a campaign mounted by pensioners in Didcot who fear plans for funding changes will spell disaster for their popular day centre.

And users are concerned that further reforms, due to be introduced in the autumn, which will mean some pensioners could be given money to spend on their own care services, will deter people from going to the day centres, threatening their future.

More than 1,000 people across the county have signed protest petitions so far.

Bernard Bovingdon, who has used the Bicester centre for five years, said: “We are afraid that organisations that really don’t know how to run a resource centre and certainly not how to run it as well as it is done, will come in and the situation will deteriorate. We could find ourselves in five years time with a centre not offering the facilities that it does, and cutting back on what we do.”

The 170 pensioners who use the centre have also written to MP Tony Baldry and local county councillors.

Mr Bovingdon, 74, who lives in Bicester, said the new plans to let people choose how they spend their individual care budgets would lead to pensioners leaving the day centre. Users will be able to spend their money elsewhere.

Among the facilities on offer at the day centre are a chiropodist, physical training, occupational therapy, cooking and painting workshops, concerts and outings. A cooked lunch is also provided.

County Hall spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “We are seeking to modernise our day services across the county including in Bicester to give people greater choice in the way they are able to access support.

“Day services will be preserved and the aim is to deliver better outcomes tailored to individual need and in a style that is most suited to lives in the second decade of the 21st century.”

Mr Bovingdon, who is a member of the users’ committee, added: “It gets people out of their four walls and helps them to meet other people.

“If you are a single person on your own, you certainly look forward to getting out once a week.”

Fellow user Jean Honey, 77, said: “I don’t know what I would do without this resource centre, it’s a marvellous place.

“I think it would change completely.”