ELDERLY people in Charles Close, Evesham, are celebrating now they have been told they can keep their permanent warden.

The residents were devastated last August when the Evesham and Pershore Housing Association told them it would be launching a pilot scheme which would take warden, Jenny O'Donnal, off permanent stand-by.

In October, she became part of a peripatetic team of five serving all of south Worcestershire's sheltered housing schemes. This meant she could only visit Charles CLose twice-a-week.

The elderly residents complained that they did not want to be visited by five different people - they argued that this would lead to security problems.

One 76-year-old even wrote to the ombudsmen about the scheme, which the resident said was against housing association rules.

Now, the EPHA has listened to the residents and agreed to put Jenny back in her flat, in Charles Close, on a permanent basis as soon as the pilot scheme is over.

Pensioner Frank Macklin, whose letter to the ombudsman helped secure the warden's return, said: "We are all very pleased indeed that they finally listened to us.

"My health was seriously going downhill but now I feel much better. You have no idea what a difference the news has made to the others."

EPHA tenant services manager, Juliana Crow, said: "Residents are being involved in deciding which way we are going to go. If they do not want mobile wardens they will not be getting them on a permanent basis.

"Charles Close is different to the other sheltered housing schemes in Wychavon in that the residents are not all under one roof."

She said that the six-month pilot scheme would need to be completed in order to study costs before those in Charles Close are back to normal.