CARERS and relatives of elderly and vulnerable people say they will fight moves to close Swanage's day centre and merge it with Wareham.

Carers, who rely on day care centres for respite, claim that stringent council rules governing who is eligible to attend day care centres has made them "invalid" from a cost per head point of view.

Last year the county claimed that only "substantial and critical service users" could qualify for day centre provision.

Geraldine Norris, whose 91-year-old mother is reliant on Swanage Day Centre, said: "In February at least half of the people using the day centre were forced to leave but now the council is complaining that their numbers are low so they can't justify the cost."

"For some of them a hot meal is the only thing they have to look forward to and they have no one to support them.

"Last year DCC spent an enormous amount of money at Swanage Day Centre updating services, including the provision of modern heating facilities and landscaping the gardens and grounds back and front.

"Why did they spend all that money if they knew they were in severe financial difficulties?"

Glen Gocoul, head of community care operations in Dorset, said: "Dorset is the lowest funded shire authority in the country and the cost of providing these services increases every year but central government grants do not."

Everyone who receives a service will continue to do so until the results of the consultation are taken to councillors.

David Crowhurst, cabinet member for adult and community services, said: "Low occupancy of our day centres is a real problem.

"The changes we made to our legibility criteria have obviously been a factor but some centres have been operating below capacity for several years."