A day centre which provides vital care for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s has been given a three-month reprieve after being threatened with immediate closure.

It emerged last week that Whinneybank Daycare Centre in Lossiemouth, Moray was earmarked for closure after losing a bid to extend their contract with Moray Council for a further three years.

Now it has been confirmed that the centre will remain open for the next three months while the council decide on its future.

However, Hugh Lawton, 74, whose wife has advanced stage dementia, has hit out at the plans claiming the service was simply “delaying the inevitable”.

Mr Lawton whose wife Margaret, 75, attends Whinneybank six days a week, told STV Local that the reprieve for the centre "did not change much" for him in the long term.

He said: “I believe that the council have already made their minds up about this situation, so three more months of the centre being open does not change much for me in the long term and isn’t really a weight off my shoulders. It’s just delaying the inevitable.

“It is helping those who have holiday arrangements and that’s about it. At the end of the day it all comes down to money. Even if I could get Margaret into another day care service, they are quite a bit further away from where we live, at least double the journey for me, and also provide erratic transport services.

“At the moment, I’m still not happy with the three-month reprieve, but my wife may have to go into full-time care but that is another issue altogether. In hospital, patients with Alzheimer’s are told to learn how to do things themselves and then sent home. With dementia it is utterly different and they need a different level of care altogether.”

It is understood that the Lossiemouth centre is the only one in the area that currently caters for day clients, some of whom suffer from the advanced stages of dementia, on a seven days a week basis.

Mr Lawton added: “Other day care centres in the area do not provide the same service – many of them are only open for service users from 10am to 2pm as far as I’m aware and not 8.45am to 4.15pm which is the time Margaret spends at Whinneybank.”

It has now been confirmed that the centre will remain open for another three months – with further discussions still to take place on its long-term future.

It is understood that a meeting will be held on Tuesday afternoon with the council’s social work department and relatives of those who use the day care services to discuss the plans.

Moray Council were unable to provide a comment.