A final bid to halt the decision to close a dementia day care centre was mounted today.

Councillors, who have been campaigning with residents against the decision to shut Tangley Hall, have used their democratic powers to call an extraordinary meeting of the full council.

The meeting aims to force the issue of Tangley to be addressed once again.

Councillor Stephen Knight, leader of Richmond's Liberal Democrats, said members of his party had decided to take the unusual move of calling for the meeting as it was an important local issue.

He said: “This really is an 11th hour attempt to give the administration an opportunity to think again on an issue residents seem to care greatly about.

“By law any five councillors can call an extraordinary full council meeting but it is a very little used power.

"It is very rarely used but we felt it was such an important issue that people feel very strongly about so we thought we’d use every tool in our kit.

“It is just one last opportunity to ask them to think again and we hope the public will come out and support us.”

The decision to move for a meeting was taken after an attempt by Liberal Democrat councillors to get Conservatives to support a call-in of the closure decision failed on Wednesday.

Under council rules any five members of the council can ask for an extraordinary meeting and once the intention has been lodged the council has to call a meeting within seven days.

Councillor Urquhart, Richmond Council's cabinet member for adult services, health and housing, was surprised a meeting was called.

She said: “I can’t remember this happening before in my time as a councillor.

“I don’t understand [why they are doing this], whatever this does will just delay us implementing what we consider to be the best way to keep the service going.

“It’s unsustainable for us at the moment to keep the service going and continuing to keep two centres open. Tangley cannot take the numbers currently using Ham and we are in a sticky situation here having to run the service in a more effective way.”

Staff at Hampton-based facility Tangley Hall, alongside Twickenham day care centre for the elderly, were officially told by the council, on January 24, that it would be shut for good.

The decision came despite a public appeal for a stay of execution and the threat of concerned relatives and carers launching a legal bid to stop the council’s decision.

The council said shutting the two centres was expected to save £315,000 a year from the adult social care budget and the two remaining care facilities in East Sheen and Ham would be turned into “centres of excellence”.