Negotiations open with new provider over running meals on wheels in West Sussex

By Joshua Powling
Published 5th Aug 2015, 08:39 BST
Meals on Wheels on Services ENGSUS00120130210153622Meals on Wheels on Services ENGSUS00120130210153622
Meals on Wheels on Services ENGSUS00120130210153622
The county council is negotiating with a new provider over taking on the ‘meals on wheels’ contract in October.

The Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) announced earlier this year it would not continue to run the service, which delivers hot meals to elderly and vulnerable residents in West Sussex, as it was losing ‘significant amounts of money each day’.

A new contract for the service was put up for tender in 2013, making it cost-neutral to West Sussex County Council and self-funded by the charity.

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When RVS announced it was pulling out of the contract in February Peter Catchpole, WSCC’s cabinet member for adult social care and health, said that the charity ‘had got its sums wrong’.

Meanwhile volunteers who help deliver the meals expressed anger at the possibility of the service ending and the impact this would have on residents who relied on it.

However the county council is