OXFORDSHIRE County Council has sought to reassure pensioners and disabled people facing the loss of their wardens by announcing a replacement service.

As the Oxford Mail reported on Tuesday, the current system is poised for a cost-cutting shake-up, which has left many residents worried.

Wardens are employed by housing associations and district councils to routinely visit people living in sheltered accommodation.

Residents at Field House in West Way, Botley, expressed their concerns about the cutbacks.

Their sheltered accommodation block has 60 flats and is run by housing association Sovereign Vale.

Eileen ‘Mick’ Cruickshank, 80, said: “We don’t want to be without our warden.

“We want to know how we can keep our warden.

“Some people here don’t have any family near them and the warden coming in every day gives peace of mind. It would affect me dreadfully and my neighbours. It’s terrible.”

Olive Hockley, 80, has lived in Botley for eight years.

She said: “We’ve suspected we might lose our warden for some time.

“It’s rather unsettling for people our age. It will affect me quite a bit because not everyone has got relatives around them to pop in, so I rely on seeing the warden.

“It’s the feeling of security that someone is there for the small things.

“I think they should have put residents in the picture before anything like this happens.

“We haven’t been told anything.

“People might want to make other arrangements and move to make themselves more secure.”

However Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for adult services, said: “We want to introduce a system which aims to ensure there are effective services to support people their own homes right across the county, not just in some areas.

“This should be through planned visits during the day and evening, backed up by a 24-hour emergency response service to ensure accidents and other emergencies can be dealt with quickly, by properly trained staff.”

County council spokesman Marcus Maberley said no decisions had been made about who would provide the service and how much it would cost.

But he added: “The 24-hour emergency response service would be through a range of equipment – in a nutshell, personal alarms, which are used by some people already – that when activated puts a call through to a monitoring centre which will ensure that appropriate help is provided.

“This would run alongside planned visits during the day and afternoon and would be available to every person who wanted it in the county, which currently isn’t the case.

“Many current warden services do not offer round-the-clock assistance – which the new proposals would – and only offer assistance to those living in sheltered housing accommodation, and not those living in other settings.”