WORCESTER MP Mike Foster has been urged to throw his weight behind a campaign to keep resident wardens in city sheltered housing schemes.

Worcester Community Housing has announced it would go ahead in April with plans to replace live-in wardens with three teams of community-based wardens.

But elderly residents opposed to the scheme, including 92-year-old Beattie Thompson of Brookthorpe Close, Warndon, vowed to fight on. Her son, Barry, said his mother would not give up the fight, but she was so distressed he was worried about the effect on her health.

In a letter to Mr Foster, copied to the Worcester News, he raised grave concerns over the way the association was "riding roughshod" over the residents and their fears.

He urged Mr Foster to take up the gauntlet on their behalf and stop the changes, which he believes were agreed and passed a long time before the November 1 consultation deadline.

He wrote: "My mother has seen through two great wars and in her own words she has found a small piece of security within Brookthorpe Close."

He added that security depended on having a caring warden on site, not at the end of a telephone and part of a team overseeing five other sheltered schemes besides Brookthorpe.

Mr Thompson asked what would happen if a resident needed help from a team warden, who happened to be attending another call at one of the six sites under their supervision.

Worcester Community Housing has stressed the service tenants receive would not change and the ethos behind the service will stay the same.

Supported housing manager Nina Chinery said: "Sheltered housing is there to help tenants live independently in the community.

"The warden's role is to provide back-up and support to help them do this, not provide care. Tenants will still enjoy a 24-hour service with wardens available as and when they're needed."

Mike Foster said he had supported residents in expressing their concerns but Worcester Community Housing had said the new system would be better.

He added: "They need to convince residents this and I hope they'll take a great deal of time and care talking to them because some feel very vulnerable about the changes being made."