Campaigners have been told council plans to close five care centres in Wirral could be put on hold.

In an email to protest leader Brian Donaldson, the deputy leader of Wirral Council has given assurances the shutdown will be postponed if service-users have no alternative care arrangements in place.

Mr Donaldson - who spearheaded a petition of almost 2,000 signatures to prevent the closures - believes shutting the homes is being rushed, which runs the risk of leaving people in the lurch.

He revealed Cllr Simon Holbrook has been under pressure from the campaign group to acknowledge their concerns.

They say they wanted him to show his party understands their dismay surrounding the plans and demonstrate they “care about the impact the speed of closure is having.”

Mr Donaldson said he warned Cllr Holbrook his Liberal Democrat group could be made the “biggest scapegoat at the next opportunity for the voters."

In response, Cllr Holbrook has now said via e-mail: “I am in regular contact with the director [Howard Cooper] and he does assure me that everything will be done to make sure this [people left without care] does not happen - even if this means changing planned arrangements to close any particular establishment by any particular date.

"If it was shown to be necessary to keep an establishment open a little longer in order to enable the transition process to be safely completed, he would have the political support he needed to carry that through.”

Mr Donaldson, whose 28-year-old son has profound mental and physical disabilities, is still worried about the council’s alternative to in-house respite and care provision.

He said: “I addressed the Lib/Dems because I thought they might be able to do something, even if it is to postpone the closures for a little while.

"I suppose I engaged in the political game to some extent.

“The thing is, it was never about the closures because we knew we weren’t going to stop them altogether.

"It was about the speed at which the process was carried out.

"We also needed to know that there is going to be a high-quality alternatives."

He added: “I am glad Simon Holbrook has listened to our concerns and is willing to delay the closures if needs be.

"It is a small but significant step.”

Earlier this month, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition administration set a budget which cut nearly £60m from council expenditure.

Included in the package was the closure of the five care homes.

Labour had put forward a plan aimed at permanently keeping open the Mapleholme respite centre in Birkenhead.

Their proposal would also have frozen the closure of the four other homes – Pensall, Poulton, Meadowcroft and Fernleigh - for at least six months.

But the bid was outvoted and all five are scheduled to shut on March 31.