SHOCKED Meals on Wheels volunteers have expressed their dismay at being dropped by the county council after almost 50 years of devoted service in Andover.

Members of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) have been delivering meals to vulnerable and elderly people in the town for almost half a century – but Hampshire County Council has now awarded the contract to another organisation, claiming it will “make the service more uniform”.

The WRVS volunteers, pictured, who are based at St Ann’s Hall, in Suffolk Road, Andover, are getting ready to carry out their last rounds to the 90 residents they serve before they lose the contract for good at the end of March.

Carole Murray, of the WRVS, told the Advertiser how the group’s volunteers go above and beyond the call of duty.

“A lot of them have been doing it long term and they do the extras like putting the light bulbs in, and bringing in milk.

“It’s what the volunteers do and it keeps them young,” she said.

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