THE chances of Wellington Town Council taking on under-threat independent living complexes are looking extremely unlikely.

The Abbeyfield Society, which runs the Ivy House and The Old Vicarage, told elderly residents last month that it was going to have to close the homes because of financial pressure.

The news was greeted with huge concern and disappointment from residents, their families and the wider Wellington community.

It was last summer that Abbeyfield announced that it was looking at the long-term future viability of Ivy House in Corams Lane and The Old Vicarage in High Street and warned that closure was a distinct possibility.

Now that possibility has become very real indeed for residents after Abbeyfield said it had been unable to find anyone to take on the sheltered housing complexes. 

In June last year Wellington councillors – appalled at the thought of elderly residents losing their homes – said they would do all they could and Cllr Andrew Govier suggested that if all else failed, the town council could look at “buying them and taking them over.”

“The council should consider, if nobody takes over the homes, about us actually looking to do so,” said Cllr Govier last June. “If it’s financially viable to do it then Wellington Town Council should look at buying them and taking them over.”

But a lot has happened in the past 12 months – none more so than the fact that the town council has had to take on a lot more services from cash-strapped Somerset Council which has ultimately seen it whack its share of the Council Tax up by nearly 100 per cent for 2024-25.

So town clerk Dave Farrow, speaking at the town council’s annual meeting on May 1, said it would be unlikely for the authority to be able to take on Ivy House and The Old Vicarage.

“We’ve been doing what we can to liaise with Somerset Council to offer the support that’s needed to residents,” he said.

“We passed a resolution last June that if there was no other option we would look to see if we could step in and buy the property and we wrote to Abbeyfield to ask them about it and whether it would be realistic.

“But if we wanted to do it we would have to raise the precept.”

Mr Farrow said that if the council did go down that road the authority would have to team up with a registered housing provider to run the business.

But Mr Farrow added: “I wouldn’t hold out much hope that the council will be able to step in.”

Nevertheless, the council will continue to “challenge and agitate” with Abbeyfield over the situation.

“We are telling the residents to stay put – don’t move, stay where you are and continue paying the rent,” said Mr Farrow. “We will keep agitating and challenging Abbeyfield and we will continue on doing what we can behind the scenes to make sure that these closures do not happen.”