FOR pensioners in a street near Siddington an annual Christmas Eve meal is the highlight of the festive period – but they fear they may have to cancel the special event this year.

That's because Bromford, which runs the Southmead Residents' Hall, has closed it down for a kitchen refurbishment - and the community is furious because they claim they weren't told about the makeover in advance and the work is behind schedule.

However, Bromford has vowed to make sure the kitchen is ready for Christmas Eve.

The hall in Southmead was closed on December 1 and when residents found out and questioned Bromford they were told that it would reopen within a week, they told the Standard.

Walter Stagg, 66, who lives in Southmead and helps to organise the meal, said it may be too late to arrange the event as Bromford has only just announced that the kitchen will be ready.

He said he called and wrote to Bromford several times to ask for an explanation but they were not able to give him an answer for several days.

Mr Staff said: "Each of our residents look forward to our Christmas get together and they are really disappointed they might not be able to have it now."

The hall is also used several times a week to hold events like tea and coffee mornings and fish and chips evenings, and residents want to know when the venue will open again so they can resume their gatherings.

Bromford's Suzanne Shead said: "We notified the residents before starting work on refurbishing this kitchen but it has taken longer than we expected. We have experienced some unexpected challenges and we also decided to order a new water boiler which will improve the appearance of the new kitchen by tidying away pipework and cabling.

"Over the past two weeks both our support worker and our surveyor have been in constant contact with Mr Stagg as we have kept him updated. We understand his frustration and are pulling out all the stops to ensure that the residents’ Christmas Eve event can go ahead on Wednesday. We are laying the flooring on Tuesday and this will be followed immediately by a clean-up.

"The final tiling and decoration will not be completed until the week of January 5, but the kitchen will be ready to use on Christmas Eve and will be available from Tuesday evening."