A GROUP of mums are angry about plans to halve the number of respite beds in Basingstoke for children with severe disabilities and are asking for an open meeting with project managers.

The 20 mums of Pro-Active Parents are unhappy with plans to close 18 beds at two respite centres in Basingstoke - Erdesley House and Verdi Close - and replace them with a single, new, nine-bed facility to be built in the grounds of the old Park Prewett psychiatric hospital. The plans were approved by Strategic Health Authority chiefs last month.

The group say claims made in official papers, and reported in The Gazette, that they have been consulted and want more emphasis on care at home are misleading and out-of-date.

Sharon Barnes, from The Vale, Oakley, whose six-year-old daughter Zoe has cerebral palsy, said: "I did not know anything about these plans until I saw the article in The Gazette and neither did some social workers."

Elaine Giles, from Widmore Road, Basingstoke, said her son Christopher, nine, who has a rare neurological condition, is scheduled to be at Verdi Close one weekend in every six, but pressure on the system means that often fails to happen.

Julia Brown, from Highlands Road, Basingstoke, is the mother of six-year-old Sam, who has the mental development of a two-year-old. She said: "Implying we don't want regular respite care is not right."

Jenny Cove, whose 14-year-old son Ashley has a brain disorder, said she could remember a meeting in 1996 which discussed the closures, but had heard nothing since.

Val Dowd, of Aster Road, Basing-stoke, whose three-year-old daughter Catherine has extensive brain damage, said: "I have asked for more time at Erdesley, but they say they cannot offer more because they don't have the staff or the funds."

The group says social services have little provision now to give hard-pressed parents a break. They are also worried that the new plan is vulner-able to collapse because it relies on the high price of property for its funding.

A Hampshire County Council spokeswoman said the steering group would discuss meeting parents when it meets later this month. She added: "There was a lot of consultation with families when the plans were first put forward. We now want to renew that."

She said that, in practice, the reduction in bed numbers would amount in total to two or three fewer beds.