A DEMONSTRATION has been organised to save a day care centre threatened with closure by the council.

Leading councillors will consider whether Crownfield Day Centre in Crownfield Road, Leytonstone, will close on Tuesday.

Trade union Unison Waltham Forest is organising a demonstration before the cabinet meeting which will be attended by staff, carers and some service users if they can make it.

The union also plans to write to every councillor.

The council recently closed Walton House care home in Chingford Mount Road, Chingford, along with five other homes to fund two new “super care homes”, which will no longer be built because of the recession.

Ashok Shanji, 55, who is disabled and diabetic has been attending the centre four days a week for the last five years, describes it as a “lifeline.”

He said: “All the service users are angry. The council has said we're happy with the closure but we are not.

“If the centre is closed more and more people who used it will become depressed and more of them will suffer dementia.”

Leyton MP Harry Cohen expressed his concerns to the council about the proposed closure of Crownfield Road after meeting with service users and campaigners.

The council is considering closing Crownfield because of the declining number of people using it has dwindled to 20, its running costs of £930,000 per annum exceeding its £822,700, and the centre does not provide the range of health and therapy treatment provided elsewhere.

The council carried out a consultation exercise which it says shows there is ample provision elsewhere for all the service users.

The authority also says the majority of service users have been found alternative care provision.