Public Meeting On Fife Home Care Charges

Fife Council has agreed to a public meeting on its controversial new homecare charges. After weeks of pressures and political fighting over the increased costs, the local authority has admitted things could have been done differently – and bowed to campaigners to have a public forum.

{mosimage}It takes place at Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, on Friday, February 1 and is expected to attract campaigners and many local residents worried and concerned about the impact of the new charges.

The meeting will attempt to clarify to the public exactly what the new charges will mean and how they will affect Fife’s disabled and elderly population.

The administration has been accused by the Campaign Against Charges (CAC) group, as well as several councillors, of illegally implementing the charges without a proper policy in place.

A Kirkcaldy councillor has also written to a senior official to ascertain whether the implementation has been legal.

Councillor David Ross said: “There have been failings with implementation in terms of what information has been put out.
“If we had gone through a proper impact assessment and got proper information then we wouldn’t be in this position.

“The way out of this is for the administration to delay implementation until all these things have been done.”

Other councillors, however, said the decision would not be reversed in the near future and blamed opposition members for leading the public on.

CAC this week welcomed the public meeting which came after it presented a 3000 signature petition to leader of the administration Councillor Peter Grant last week.