Parents and carers angered by the proposed closure of the Kemback Street Day Centre have formed an action group to fight the move.
Dundee City Council’s social work department approved the proposal in March.
However, parents and family members have claimed the closure will have ”horrendous” consequences for users and carers alike.
Robert Dippie’s son Keith (41) has been attending the centre for adults with learning difficulties for 26 years. Keith still lives at home with his parents, but goes to the centre every weekday from 9am to 3pm.
”I think it’s terrible what they’ve been doing,” Mr Dippie said. ”They’ve tried to railroad this through. They weren’t properly advised on it.
”Kemback Street was meant to be getting renovated and now it’s going to be mothballed.”
Mr Dippie has been told Keith will now be assessed and one of the options may be giving the family a direct payment to cover private care at home.
He said: ”We don’t know what will happen, but it’s going to be horrendous if he’s at home all the time.”
George Stewart’s son David (47) has Down’s syndrome and cerebral palsy and has attended the centre since it opened 27 years ago.
He said: ”Kemback Street provides an opportunity to learn new skills and develop others.
”To re-provision, ie close, Kemback Street and dismantle a skilled, dedicated team doing such amazing work is an act of vandalism.
”Some of the parents only found out about this the first time it appeared in the paper. It’s disgusting.”
One of the reasons given for closing the centre was the declining number of users. However, Mr Stewart said he believed the council is directly responsible for the downturn.
”A number of years ago they introduced charging for people to attend the centre and a number of people couldn’t afford to go,” he said.
”They have also reduced the staffing compliment at Kemback Street and the Care Commission insists they have one member of staff for every six users, so with eight members of staff, the maximum number of users they can have is 48.
”I heard last year of one youngster coming out of Kingspark wanting to go to Kemback Street but there were not enough staff.
”I would hope it would be possible to stop the process of closure of Kemback Street and the Out and About service and conduct a proper consultative exercise.”