PENSIONERS meeting at a community centre in Rubery have been hit by a massive increase in costs and bureaucracy.

Up to seventy pensioners who meet for four-hour community art sessions at Rubery Youth and Community Centre, in New Road, three times a week, are being forced to look for a new venue after Worcestershire County Council virtually quadrupled their char-ges.

Pensioners used to pay £3 a year to be a community centre member and then 50p for each session.

Now they are being told to pay 75p a person, an hour, and have had their time cut to just 80 minutes for each session and they must have a minimum of ten people.

Angry centre user Larry Bradshaw told the Advertiser/Messenger: "We are being treated very badly, with no respect."

The pensioners could pay group booking fees but Mr Bradshaw said they are not an official group, have no leader and, because it is a 'come and go as you please', session numbers vary.

Group booking fees are £5 an hour plus £2 insurance.

He added: "We are being forced into becoming a club, which we do not want and loaded down with petty bureaucracy such as form filling and appointing people to take on financial responsibilities."

Mr Bradshaw went on: "The youth service is dominating all that goes on there."

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said the Education and Lifelong Learning Panel voted for the youth service to increase charges in line with other venues.

He added: "Overall, we have no doubt these increases are for the good of the youth service as a whole and will ensure quality provision for years to come."