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Meals on wheels in the Wirral is no longer provided by the WRVS after they lost the Wirral council tender to a private company ICare - who promised a value for money service.

The Liverpool Echo reported the following:

Two weeks after the handover to the Blackpool company, elderly users have reported a jump from £2.10 to £2.60 for meals.

Shortly before their centre was forced to close, WRVS volunteers in Wallasey reported a string of calls about missed meals and customers deciding to ditch the service because of cost.

WRVS manager David Foulds said "For the four days after the handover to ICare we were inundated with calls about the change in cost and delays. After years of serving these people we had to tell them it was no longer our responsibility."

"A rise of 50p is a lot of money for the people we cater for."

"Most importantly, the much-promised improvement in quality doesn't seem to have materialised."

Chief Executive of Age Concern Wirral, Myrtle Lacey, said: "Any increase in costs of meals for older people is regrettable."

When contacted by the ECHO, ICare referred our query to Wirral council. But the council declined to comment on the impact of the price rise.

A council spokesman said "Of the providers that submitted a tender for the contract, the ICare group offered the best value meals to customers."

"We are aware of 10 customers whose details were not passed to ICare. As soon as the problems with delivery became apparent, each customer was offered a meal either on the same day, if they wanted it, or for the service to start on the following day."