A solicitor today urged Bradford Council to step down over its plan to serve summonses on four elderly and disabled people for non-payment of Social Services charges.

Michael Kennedy, specialist in mental health and community care law based with Emsley's, Leeds, said the Council had the right to waive the charges for services including day centres and home helps.

He predicted widespread panic in the district over the plan and said people would be afraid of using the facilities. He said court appearances could echo the emotional Poll Tax prosecutions where people could not pay.

"This is what has happened in other areas, yet people desperately need these facilities," he said.

"The problem is that it is one thing making the charges but another thing chasing them. I think it is a retrograde step."

Mr Kennedy spoke out after the Council confirmed its legal department was expected to take four people to court for large debts.

The Council says some people are refusing to pay the charges on principle and have debts totalling more than £1,000.

Chairman of the Council's Social Services Committee Councillor Mike Young says people who are paying say it is unfair, and the authority also has a duty to collect its debts.

Now another family has spoken up about the charges and says they will not be paid, despite the threat.

Norma Fenton, of The Grove, Eccleshill, says her daughter Joan, 40, who has Downs Syndrome, cannot pay the bills from her benefits.

She said the blanket charge imposed by the Council meant Joan was charged the full amount for her day centre, even if she was sick for several days and stayed at home or did not have a meal.

Mrs Fenton said: "Because Joan is on a diet for health reasons, she has to take her own food. It is grossly unfair."

She said the people complaining about objectors who withheld the charges had created a precedent by paying them when they could all have joined in the protest.

She said: "If everyone had stopped paying altogether, this scheme would have been a non-starter."

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