Mobile wardens staged a protest walk-out at Tuesday night's Ridgehill board meeting -- to express opposition to plans to contract out Careline operator services.

One insider who contacted the Borehamwood Times said staff believed vulnerable elderly people would be put at risk. "If the calls are taken in, say, a large call centre in Scotland, there is a risk that mistakes could be made and somebody could die," said the woman, who did not want to be named.

Currently, a small team of operators and around a dozen "mobiles" work closely together from a base at the housing association's headquarters in Elstree Way, Borehamwood.

Operators deal with calls for help from elderly tenants.

Speaking after the meeting, angry operators said: "We're not just telephone answerers. We know the area, we know the people, including police and ambulance crews. The service has saved lives and that's the truth."

Our contact said staff were worried about a new situation where operators did not know the "mobiles", let alone individual tenants.

But this week, their bosses agreed to forge ahead with money-saving plans to offer the contract for taking the calls to an outside body. Customer services director Lily Smith said: "Our consultation with residents has shown that we have clear support for this change. The service to our customers will not be adversely affected in any way.

"A working party will ensure there is a rigorous tendering and vetting process and that the quality of service is maintained. I am confident Careline users will not notice any difference."

But our contact said workers feared the action was the thin end of the wedge. Previously, there were five operators and now there are two, with "mobiles" taking over their duties and temporary staff covering.

Ridgehill's spokesman said a recent consultation exercise showed tenants wanted resources allocated to replacing windows and fitting central heating, which means savings elsewhere.

But our contact said in five years, Ridgehill had never taken up opportunities to make their own call centre viable by accepting contract work from outside organisations. And tenants were bound to choose window replacements and central heating over the internal provision of the Careline, if they had been told services would not suffer.

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