One woman whose elderly mother uses the Lyndon Walk centre said: “She has dementia and I am worried that it could damage her health even further if she has to move somewhere else. I really worry about that because she doesn’t cope well with change.”

Kath Miles of the GMB union, who was part of a protest campaign against the closure of county council-run residential homes for the elderly five years ago, said: “You are putting these people through a lot of turmoil and it’s not fair, especially when county councillors have given themselves a 40% pay increase.”

Local Labour councillor Deirdre Campbell challenged Liberal Democrat executive member for adult care, Simon Reed, to admit that the county council was no longer going to be providing day care, and someone else would have to do it.

Coun Reed said if the users of the centres wanted to continue receiving traditional day care then they could do so – but it might not be the county council providing it. He said the council was facing £55m in budget cuts over two years and had to use its limited resources as effectively as possible.

“We are using the Government’s transformation agenda in social care as an opportunity to offer elderly people more choice,” he said.

“If we did nothing these day centres would become financially unviable in the near future and we would be talking about closing them.”