PLANS to close services for some of Southampton’s most vulnerable adults have been put on hold.

Conservative councillors have “called in” the proposals to close a respite centre and day services, which were approved at a meeting last week despite concerns that many of the people affected had not been assessed.

It means the decision will be put under the microscope at another meeting in January.

The Labour administration’s plans to close Kentish Road respite centre and day services for adults with learning disabilities were announced earlier this year.

Carers were consulted over the summer before the proposals were put forward for final approval last month. There was concern that the views of carers, most of who had said they did not want the services to close, had not been acknowledged, and that many service users still require assessments to find out what suitable alternatives there are for them.

Plans to axe £1.5 million of services, including the respite centre and day services as well as the Woodside Lodge care home and 130 jobs, were approved by Labour council chiefs on Tuesday last week.

The council needs to find £31m of savings for 2015/16 alone and another 222 jobs could be axed if further budget cuts are approved in February.

At a recent meeting council leader Simon Letts said he felt “uneasy” with the proposed timetable, which would see some services close by April, and pledged that the day services and Kentish Road would not close unless suitable alternatives were found.

He said he recommended the closures “with a heavy heart”, adding: “If we had a choice we would not be doing this now. We have to look everywhere for budget reductions. The choice is to try to set a balanced budget or to not do so and hand over the keys of the council to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and his commissioners.”

But his Conservative opponent Jeremy Moulton has now stalled the process of closing the services, calling them in to be considered again at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny management committee on January 15.

While the committee does not have the power to reverse the cuts it will be able to ask that council leaders address outstanding issues with the plans.

Conservative group deputy leader and scrutiny committee chairman Cllr Moulton said: “Despite cross party consensus that these issues should be postponed the Labour administration has opted to push ahead to implement the decision, ignoring councillors and carers.

“It was very clear from the last scrutiny meeting that adequate alternatives were not in place to replace council services and rushing to make these changes for April 1 is wrong. It’s clearly driven by the desire to make changes for the new financial year rather than being driven by concern for the vulnerable service users.”