THE number of hot meals being bought by the over fifties at Basildon’s day centres has fallen by more than 30 per cent in recent years, according to new figures.

During 2012/13, kitchens at the George Hurd, Pitsea and Laindon day centres served 33,436 meals consisting of hot food, snacks and sweets.

That is 5,502 fewer meals and snacks than were served the previous year.

The figures emerged for the first time as Basildon Council published a report ahead of next Thursday’s cabinet meeting where councillors will discuss the controversial plans to axe the authority’s funding for hot meals.

The report was published just 24 hours after Terri Sargent, Basildon councillor responsible for community, spoke passionately to the Echo about how the council could no longer justify subsidising the meals.

Speaking about the plans to scrap the subsidy for the meals, Mrs Sargent said the authority had been left to make the tough decision because of low take-up of the service and the increasing budget cuts imposed on local councils.

The report also revealed Basildon Council considered several alternatives to axing its subsidy for the meals. Among these were axing the number of kitchen staff at each of the centres to reduce running costs, but this was ruled out as the council felt staff sickness could lead to meals being cancelled at short notice.

Another option considered by the authority included cooking all of the food at just one of the day centres, then transporting it to the other two, but this was ruled out as it was not supported by users of the facilities during a consultation into the plans.

The council also approached each of the day centre committees to ask if they would take responsbility for the management and delivery of the hot meals service, but the report said the response from each day centre was “negative”.

Basildon Council is now advertising for a private firm, charity, voluntary group or individual to submit a bid to take over the running of the hot meals at the day centres.

Mrs Sargent said: “What we want to do is make a success of this and this is a way forward we hope someone will take up.

“Because of the financial climate, we just can’t afford to do this.”

Members of all three of the day centres are asked to contribute £3.60 towards their hot meals each day, but £4.40 of the overall cost is subsidised by the council.