PLANS to abolish live-in wardens in sheltered homes in South Warwickshire will lead to deaths, warned a former warden at a demonstration last week.

As part of a major review of its sheltered homes, South Warwickshire Housing Association wants to replace live-in wardens with off-site staff who will spend time in the homes during the day and at night be contacted by alarm.

However, Mary Knight, who used to work at Melville House in New Street, warned that off-site staff could not deal with emergencies as effectively as live-in wardens and that "cost-cutting could cost lives".

A group of determined residents from all over south Warwickshire braved pouring rain last Friday to protest against the plans outside the association's offices in Greenhill Street, Stratford.

Many admitted to have been reduced to tears by the news they were to lose their wardens who, in many cases, had become friends. "I was heartbroken when I heard. They do so much for us, I don't know what will happen to us without them," said Muriel Carvell of Melville House.

Under the proposal, instead of having day and night care, each resident will be issued with a panic button to be worn as a pendant.

Not workable

However, the idea worried some residents who were concerned the "guaranteed" 45 second response time for off-site staff would not be workable in practice.

John Wright, who also lives at Melville House, told the Journal that a warden had saved his life earlier this year when a kidney problem caused him to collapse.

Mr Wright, who is in a wheelchair, tried to activate his alarm but it did not work.

A warden making checks found him and called an ambulance.

"My life was saved even though the alarm failed and that is a fact," he said. "Who would have saved me otherwise?"

A furious Mrs Knight said there was no way off-site staff could respond fast enough to deal with an emergency effectively.

"What they (the housing association) don't seem to see is that cutting costs could cost lives," she claimed.

Lisa Abbotts, communications officer at the association, said the new method had been "tried and tested" by other associations and by South Warwickshire Housing Association in dummy runs.

She stressed that the plans were still in the consultation stage and that all residents would be fully briefed on all changes, with a special hotline being set up to answer queries.

She added that residents would be better off with the plans as they would have more staff on hand during the day.

"The wardens are not trained in medical procedures and, in the event of an emergency day or night, we will have fully trained professional available in easy reach," she added.