Cooks at York old folks homes are facing the axe as cash-strapped council chiefs consider buying "meals-on-wheels" for residents from York District Hospital.

The Evening Press has discovered that City of York Council, battling to cope with a £4.7 million shortfall, is planning to cut the number of cooks at its elderly persons homes.

Staff have been told that some are set to lose their jobs in the summer, with the authority understood to be seeking to contract out the cooking of lunch - the main meal of the day - to the hospital.

Under the scheme, the meals would be taken from the hospital to homes across the city and reheated before being served up to residents. Breakfast and tea would apparently still be prepared in the homes.

UNISON deputy convenor Heather Taylor said cooks had spoken to her who were "devastated" after being told they were set to lose their jobs.

"If this is true, I'm disgusted," she said. "Some of these are single mothers with mortgages to pay. They're gutted."

She said she would also have concerns about the standard of the food served up to residents, compared to freshly-cooked fare by the home's own cooks.

But Councillor Bob Fletcher, chairman of the council's social services committee, asked to comment, refused to be drawn - and hit out at "futile and alarmist" speculation.

"We have been reviewing a range of options in order to balance both my committee's and the council's budget," he said in a statement.

"A package of proposals will be put forward for public debate in the normal way, once we have reached our final conclusions.

"Any debate based on the current dribble of speculative ideas would be both futile and unnecessarily alarmist."

Danny Morgan, director of purchasing for York Health Trust, said the hospital had had cook-chill facilities installed last year capable of delivering high-quality food to outside organisations.

This was already used for day centres and the trust had made it clear that it was available for use at other locations in the city.

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