SOUTHEND council has reassured its most vulnerable residents they will still receive their meals as the contract ends with the Royal Voluntary Service.

As the RVS’s meals on wheels contract with the council expires this Sunday, and many fear the worst.

The council has said a host of alternative options have been found and taken up.

Lesley Salter, Executive Councillor for Adult Social Care, said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to find and present new and different tailored options to local people who need this service.

“Along with the fact that this provides a nutritional and hot meal to these residents, in many cases it provides a friendly face to talk to too. With these new arrangements we will be able to maintain both of these important elements, without raising any charges.

“I would like to thank the RVS for the excellent service that they have provided historically through our contract.”

Services will now be provided by Dish of the Day, Direct to You, Glenwood Cafe, Sodexo and some residents having carers heating their meals for them.

Essex County Council will stop funding its meals on wheels service from October in a bid to save more than £200,000 per year.

But not everyone has the same confidence in the scheme.

Jenny Pullen, from Rayleigh, said her 91-year-old mother Alma Bucknell, who lives in Southend, is no longer receiving meals.

She said: “I am paying a cafe to deliver my mum her meals.

“We cancelled the service before the contact was up because otherwise there might have been a queue of people looking to replace the meal.

“I spoke to social services who said they would pay a carer to come in and give my mum her meals but I wasn’t happy about her having ready meals that are full of salt and sugar.

“It also costs a lot to pay a carer for an extra hour to come in and heat a meal up, but they won’t give me an extra few pound a week to pay for her meals at a cafe so therefore I have to pay for them out of my own pocket. “At least with the Meals on Wheels service you know it was cooked in their kitchen and then reheated for the customers.”