A LYDNEY day centre which provides cheap hot meals for up to 80 elderly and disabled people a week says it is not managing to make ends meet and may have to close.

"Things are just not getting cheaper and of course we are all getting older," said Mrs Peggy Goss, chairman of the committee which runs the Victoria Centre in Lydney.

She said up to now the meals had been paid for through donations and fundraising efforts, but collecting needed a lot of energy and time.

They had been providing regular hot meals on three days a week for people from as far afield as Sedbury for the past 23 years, but now costs were simply overtaking them – and both the Forest of Dean District Council and Gloucestershire County Council refuse to fund lunch clubs.

"Our pensioners pay £2.50 a meal. We add in money raised at coffee mornings, anything, to cover other costs," said Mrs Goss.

"We also used to run an annual garden party which raised £1,500 to £2,000, which helped us very nicely over the year, but there is nobody to do that now.

"Unfortunately we have this place on a full repairing and maintenance lease from the council which means we have to pay for everything.

"All our heating and stoves and so on are electric, which is also very costly.

"We need an extra £2,500 to £3,000 to see us through. We have just applied for a lottery grant but it will be April or May before we hear anything back, and we may be forced to close before then."

The Victoria Centre is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 am until around 1.45pm with lunch at 12.30, and on Wednesdays, mainly for the disabled and housebound, from 10am until 2.30pm and later, adding a social dimension to many people's lives as well as providing the vital lifeline of a hot meal.