PLANS to make a weekly charge for using the communal area in a new £3m development at Brompton, near Northallerton, have sparked unrest among local elderly people.

Richmond MP William Hague, who officially opened The Orchards development last Friday, and a local councillor have been asked to investigate the proposals by the Northallerton-based Broadacres Housing Association.

The Orchards, described by Broadacres as an extra care scheme, has replaced the old Orchard House, which represented a traditional type of sheltered accommodation for the elderly and included a basic common room where people from the nearby Orchard Grove could meet without any separate charge.

In the new development Broadacres has included a wider range of services including a restaurant, a launderette, a beauty salon and a nurse.

It will be open to the wider community but, in an attempt to control the numbers using it, Broadacres is proposing a membership scheme involving a weekly payment of 75p.

But the move has angered Margaret Mann, of Orchard Grove, who said she was fighting on behalf of 40 elderly people in the bungalows and flats next to The Orchards.

Mrs Mann, a leading member of a committee formed to suggest services to be included in the new development, said: "When they were pulling Orchard House down we were told by Broadacres that there would be a nice new building for all of us.

"There was no charge whatever for using the common room at Orchard House. Our last meeting was in January with the developer and we then heard nothing more before learning that we would have to pay 75p a week to go into the common room at the new building.

"I think it's ridiculous because some people might only want to go in once a month. We were told this was a community facility, not them and us.

"There are some 90-year-old people who loved to go over there and meet other people. Some people are just in their houses all day. The quality of life is being taken away from them. Someone should explain to them what is going on. There has been nothing in writing yet."

Coun Bert Langthorne, who represents Brompton at district and parish level, said: "There are a lot of elderly people round there and they need a community centre.

"I am told there has never been a charge for using the common room (at Orchard House) and there should be a meeting with the management to find out whether there should be a charge now and what that charge should be."

Stephen Monsarratt, housing with support manager at Broadacres, said yesterday that the proposed 75p weekly charge was not yet being made at The Orchards because the only service in place at present was the restaurant.

Mr Monsarratt said the charge and membership scheme for the communal area would also apply to tenants of The Orchards and added: "This is not just a replacement for Orchard House.

"This is not just a common room but an extra care scheme with extensive community facilities. It will be open to the general community and obviously we have to pay to maintain that part of the complex and for the services connected with it.

Mr Monsarratt insisted that the new arrangement represented good value. "Residents would have subsidised the use of the old common room because it was included in their rent arrangements, equating to about £2 a week, but they probably didn't notice it so much."

* Official opening: page 17.