Respite care centre saved from closure

COUNCILLORS yesterday agreed to take over the running of a closure-threatened respite care centre for people with physical disabilities in Forres.

The future of the Taigh Farrais respite centre was put in jeopardy because of a threat by Moray Council to withdraw its annual funding for the centre in MacDonald Drive, which is run by a voluntary organisation, Grampian Living Options.

But the social care services committee voted at a meeting in private to operate the centre as a Moray Council resource, safeguarding the provision of the service and allaying the concerns of service users and carers .

A spokesman for the council said: "Eighty-five per cent of users are from neighbouring local authority areas. It costs Moray Council more than 160,000 a year to keep Taigh Farrais operating as a respite centre.

"The centre has the capacity to provide 204 care weeks per year, but last year only 31 of those were taken up by Moray residents. Most of the additional capacity was taken up by people from Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Highland."

The centre provides weekly or fortnightly respite periods to people with physical disabilities and has been operating for 15 years.