A VALE councillor has called for the council’s meals on wheels service to be preserved after it was revealed running costs outweigh the income generated by the service.

Councillor Richard Bertin said the social care scrutiny committee had revealed that the Meals on Wheels running cost in the Vale for 2014/15 was £46,244. Deducting income the service was overspent by £33,056.

The current charge for a meal is £4.10, but this is subsidised by Vale taxpayers.

There is no statutory requirement to provide the service for the the 79 users.

Councillor Richard Bertin said: “The meals on wheels service is an essential for many elderly people.

“We must ensure that this important service remains to ensure that elderly people keep well and are able to live independently in their own homes.”

Vale Council cabinet member for adult service cllr Stuart Egan said all areas of the authority’s work were reviewed regularly to ensure effective provision was in place.

He said: “The current charge for the meals on wheels service falls a significant way short of the cost of delivering each of the 79 meals. To ensure the service is sustainable in the long term it must be redesigned so that it breaks even.

“As in many other areas of our work we believe that this may be achieved by working in partnership with other organisations, either private businesses or community groups, to provide a better service at a lower cost. This is what the report to the scrutiny committee recommends and what will now be investigated.”