RESTRUCTURING proposals will threaten a service which provides vital support to the most vulnerable members of the community in West Devon, it was claimed this week.

Under proposals being considered by Devon and Cornwall Housing Association, the West Devon Care and Repair office in Tavistock will close, with staff working from home and reporting to a combined agency office, possibly in Ivybridge.

West Devon Care and Repair, which helps elderly and disabled people stay living in their own homes, was set up about ten years ago.

Nick Payne, West Devon Borough Council?s head of environmental services, said: ?Care and Repair are dealing with a highly vulnerable client group, many of whom have difficulties accessing services.

?I have grave concerns this change will undermine the service and that would be a great shame, for something so highly regarded and well respected in the district.?

He said West Devon Care and Repair was one of the top ten performing agencies in the country and was ?extremely successful? in raising private charitable funding.

West Devon Care and Repair worked closely with other agencies, said Mr Payne. This close relationship often resulted in cross-referrals, to the benefit of elderly or disabled clients.

?It?s not very convenient for someone based in Tavistock to go to Ivybridge, let alone someone in Hatherleigh ? there doesn?t seem to be much logic in these proposals,? said Mr Payne.

Cllr Mandy Govier, chairman of West Devon Care and Repair advisory committee, said she was appalled at the prospect of closing the Tavistock office.

?It would be horrendously missed round here. It?s a valuable asset to the area, people are always calling into the office and that personal contact is so important in a huge rural place like West Devon,? she said.

West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett said: ?If they close the office in Tavistock, it?s my belief that my constituents will suffer.

?There will be far lower take-up from an office in Ivybridge; the effect will be to disturb an existing organisation that?s working extremely well and gave assistance to more than 1,000 of the most vulnerable members of my constituency last year.?

Graham Sherburn, director of housing and support for Devon and Cornwall Housing, said re-structuring was still in its very early stages ? it was ?not set in tablets of stone? that the service would operate from Ivybridge.

?Mr Sherburn said: ?We provide these services in nine local authority areas. We are not well funded and this is a national problem. We are subsidising the service to a larger and larger degree and we can no longer afford to do it.?

He said funding for care and repair was ?immensely complicated? and ?very hand-to-mouth?. The association still wished to provide a service but had to reduce overheads.

He understood it was an emotive subject ? but reducing the number of care and repair offices in Devon and Cornwall and the introduction of more flexibility, including home working, could save money.

?We are still in consultation mode at the moment ? the one option we don?t have is to do nothing, but we are listening to what people have to say and what the impacts are,? said Mr Sherburn.