CARE will continue at a respite unit for disabled children until April next year - but no guarantees were made about its long-term future.

Parents and carers had battled to save the short break respite unit after it was faced with the axe as the county council looked to making savings.

The unit, in Ludlow Road in Kidderminster, is one of just four respite units that serve the entire county.

Cllr Andy Roberts, cabinet member for children and families, said: “I’m not going to say that this report means that from April of next year we will still use services at Ludlow Road - that would be unfair and would be misleading.

“I can’t stay there won’t be any changes in the future. All I can say is that they will done for the right reasons.”

Tina Southall, whose 15-year-old daughter Dalcie uses Ludlow Road, spoke passionately before the report was discussed - telling councillors she wanted them to see the “real face” behind the report.

Mrs Southall said: “I am now using respite and it is out of necessity. It is not because I am entitled to it, it’s because I need it. I thought I could manage on my own. I was so wrong about that.

“If I don’t get that complete rest and shutdown that Ludlow Road offers us, I would go under.

"All the parents would go under. Ludlow Road catches us when we fall and we’re falling all the time.

“Ludlow Road help me. They help me rebalance life.”

Campaigner Tracey Rochelle said it was an “almighty battle” to save Ludlow Road and it had been “incredibly stressful” for everybody involved.

She said: “We hope we will soon be in a position where we can look at ways of not closing respite centres but improving them and making them more efficient.

“I am alarmed at how much money early help and partnership services have been told they need to save. Half a million pounds is an impossible target especially as these services are already cut to the bone.

“Parents who use overnight respite are surviving on the bare minimum. They are literally clinging on by their fingertips.”

Originally, the decision on whether to close Ludlow Road was to be made by Cllr Roberts but a scrutiny task force said it would be more transparent if cabinet decided.