PLANS to scrap the council's hot meals-on-wheels service in York have been given the go-ahead.

City of York Council's executive member and advisory panel for social services gave the green light to a one-year pilot scheme working in partnership with contract caters Apetito to provide frozen meals to people in their homes.

At present, meals are delivered by council care workers and the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS), funded by the council.

Age Concern's chief officer Sally Hutchinson raised concerns at last night's meeting that drivers may not be properly trained or serve as the vital point of contact as the current meals on wheels deliverers provide.

Unison's Heather McKenzie echoed her concerns. She said: "If this service is lost there are people at risk of losing their jobs, but maintaining the high quality of the current service is our main priority and we are also concerned that if there are any savings made that money is ploughed back in to the service."

But Gary Brittain, the council's commissioning and contracts manager, said drivers were trained to notice and report back on any deterioration health.

He also said 53 per cent of customers already received frozen meals so there would be no change for them.

Mrs Hutchinson said: "Our main concern is that older people are going to have that contact that the current service provides, and who is going to teach the old people to use some of the equipment including microwaves?"

Councillor Sue Galloway, the council's social services chief, said: "This will be a pilot scheme for a year, and during that time people receiving meals from the WRVS will be accessed to see whether or not they need any further care other than a meal."

Meanwhile, the council's social services and health scrutiny board discussed the cuts faced by Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Last week, the Evening Press reported how the PCT's acting chief executive, Penny Jones, said money-saving decisions would have be taken in the coming months, which would inevitably impact on York Hospital.

We revealed in November how the PCT had told York Hospitals Trust to stop doing non-urgent operations more quickly than the standard six-month waiting time, because treating patients more speedily was putting increased pressure on its budget.

Mrs Jones was given the task of sorting out the PCT's £9.4million debt after a hard-hitting Audit Commission report expressed "serious concerns" over the trust's ability to meet its main statutory financial target.

Updated: 10:37 Friday, January 13, 2006