Users of social services joined those who provide them in a defiant march against continued spending cuts.

About 200 Oxfordshire residents appealed for the Government to "Save Our Services" in a protest march through Oxford city centre on Saturday. It was organised by public service union Unison and other campaign groups.

Demonstrators included people with disabilities, who face losing the services they use, and care workers, who face losing their jobs.

The county council is proposing to close three disability resource centres, one old folk's home and to axe 180 jobs in £10.5m cuts to the social services budget over the next three years. Wheelchair-bound Trudy Cox, of Prince's Street, Oxford, who has already seen her home-help visits slashed from an hour to half-an-hour a day, said: "I have felt the cuts get worse and worse over the years. If they carry on I will be completely house-bound."

Social worker Shallo Chand, 40, a social worker at the threatened Summerfield disability resource centre, said: "We have got to get the message across that we cannot keep cutting a service that barely exists at the moment."

A decision on the full extent of the cuts is expected on February 16.

Story date: Monday 08 February

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