SIX months after severly disabled people won a battle to save their day centre from closure its future is once again hanging in the balance.

Relatives of those who use Pershore Day Centre say they are “mystified” why cash-strapped Worcestershire County Council will once again be looking to “develop the options for the future of the centre” at a meeting today.

Your Worcester News previously reported how the council, which needs to make £45 million savings over the next four years, decided to close the centre at the beginning of last year in a bid to cut costs, despite anger from the families of the disabled people who use it each day.

They mounted a legal challenge to the decision and won a court injunction to temporarily keep open the centre in Station Road.

Then, in April, a high court judge quashed the council’s closure order altogether.

The action is believed to have cost the council £60,000.

Today, the county council’s cabinet will be asked to move a recommendation allowing the member for adult and community services, Councillor Philip Gretton, to identify and develop options for the centre’s future.

John Bradley, whose son Mark has used the centre for many years, said: “Despite losing in the high court they still want to look at the future of Pershore. In other words they want to close it.

“I don’t see how they are going to defy the court’s judgement. I’m mystified by it.”

The papers going before cabinet say the process will consider how to meet the needs of the three service users and will look at the financial costs of maintaining the centre, as well as “a range of options for the Pershore Day Centre ranging from closure through to complete redesign”.

Coun Gretton said he was “keeping an open mind” on the centre’s future but confirmed that the council could have saved about £85,000 if it had managed to successfully close it last year when there were four service users.

The majority of those savings, about £53,000, would have come from a reduction in staff – something which was of great concern to Mr Bradley, who is treasurer of the Friends of Pershore Day Centre.

He said: “Moving my son doesn’t mean his needs would be any less if you moved him to another building unless you take away staff.”

Mr Bradley said he recognised the county council needed to make savings but said the extra £33,000 a year being spent on two new members of the cabinet, as reported in your Worcester News in June, could have gone towards Pershore Day Centre instead.

Coun Gretton said he recognised how highly the parents and users regarded the centre and knew they were not happy with the prospect of the process starting again.

However, he could not comment further because he did not want to prejudge the cabinet’s decision.