COUNCIL bosses admitted this week to hiring taxis to ferry off-site wardens to sheltered housing.

The admission came after an authoritative anonymous source contacted the Journal following our front page story last week, They told us the council was forking out for 20-mile taxi rides for wardens who did not have access to their own transport.

Salisbury district council denied it was still using taxis, but a spokeswoman said: "We have used taxis in the past to transport our community scheme managers - but very infrequently - due to extreme staff shortages and in emergency situations. We have not had the need to use a taxi for this purpose since September 2004."

The Journal was swamped with calls after last week's story highlighting the removal of resident wardens from council OAP sheltered accommodation and the anger it had caused.

Their complaints included a claim that council chiefs were giving previous 'on-site' wardens, their own council house. And this was confirmed in this week's council statement.

The spokeswoman said it was true to say that a number of the scheme managers had been offered accommodation within the council's own housing stock,

"However, it should be remembered that they have vacated properties which can now be offered to people on the council's transfer and waiting lists," she added.

The removal of resident wardens from council-owned sheltered housing has been justified by SDC head of strategic housing Andrew Reynolds, who said the decision came as part of an overhaul of older people's services in a bid to make it more cost effective.

Wiltshire Supporting People (WSS), which allocates funding to service providers such as SDC, is expecting to have its budget cut by government from £8.7m to £8.3m.

But WSS co-ordinator Clair Wheeler told the Journal that the cuts were "not set in stone" and that none had yet been made to the SDC allocation.

Despite this, the council cabinet waved through the proposal to remove wardens last year.

The decision has outraged residents at schemes across the district, and many are already complaining of faults in the new system, deeming it anything but cost effective. Those at Addison Square, Durrington, have joined the growing list of schemes getting up petitions to protest against the changes. This week residents have sent copies of their petition to Salisbury MP Robert Key and SDC.

The council spokeswoman commented: "We appreciate our tenants' concerns, as change can often be very upsetting. We would urge any tenants who are concerned to talk to us and we will happily speak to them in detail about what is happening."

At Crane Lodge, in Salisbury, householders are increasingly worried about the effectiveness of the new visiting wardens system and are making complaints.

A concerned caller, who also contacted the Journal following last week's story, said since the removal of the warden at Crane Lodge, her relative had suffered a fall and was left on the floor for two hours before eventually being helped by a family member.

After pulling the CareConnect cord the elderly resident told the operator she was not hurt but needed help to get up, yet was told there was no-one to come and assist her and a relative would be contacted instead.

SDC has said it could not comment specifically on the 97-year-old because it did not have her details.

"What we can say is that all our CareConnect operators are instructed to call an ambulance when a resident has had a fall, unless the resident requests otherwise," they said.

Last week SDC told the Journal they are yet to receive any "formal" complaints, about the removal of on-site wardens, but our source assured us that the council has been flooded with complaints.

According to the council, tenants wishing to make complaints do not have to fill in a complaints form but "can write, phone us or speak directly to a member of staff on site".

"If they do phone us, or approach a member of staff with a complaint we do request that they then put the complaint in writing so that we have a formal record of this," added the spokeswoman.