Carers fear Burgess Hill pensioners will suffer because of cuts in council grants to voluntary organisations.

Age Concern is having £10,000 cut from the annual grant it receives from Mid Sussex District Council.

Between 35 and 45 people go to the St Alban's Hall Day Centre in Fairfield Road every weekday. They can get a cooked meal and take part in exercise and quizzes.

About 60 to 70 meals are prepared each day for the centre and its sister site, the Martin House Day Centre in The Brow.

Senior carer Celia Baker said of the cuts: "We are shocked and disgusted. I think it is going to make it really difficult to do our jobs.

"It will affect the old folk more than us and we will have to do an awful lot of fund-raising to make ends meet.

"We have people coming here that probably don't see other people apart from us."

Anne Aldridge, 86, from Burgess Hill, said: "I come nearly every day and the meals are excellent. We would be absolutely lost without it."

Councillor Kathy Dumbovic, who is a trustee for Age Concern, said: "If we have not got the money to pay for staff we shall have to rely on volunteers and there are some things volunteers, from a health and safety point of view, cannot do."

The council agreed to make savings of £50,000 in its voluntary organisation grants budget at the beginning of March.

Bill Hatton, chief executive of the council, said: "The amount of money for grants that we get to disperse is limited. We wish we had more to give."