NOW is your chance to stand up and be counted in the fight to save Newport's meals on wheels service.

Councillors reviewing the authority's controversial decision to axe the service say they want to hear YOUR views on the subject.

And the city's most vulnerable residents are urging Argus readers to put pen to paper and back what they call an "essential lifeline".

Emphysema sufferer Edna Freeman, 80, receives meals on wheels at home and also attends the service's weekly luncheon club.

Today she calls on readers to write to the council and help save the scheme. She said: "For me the service is a breath of life, a way of keeping in touch with friends.

"The luncheon club is my one outing a week. I wouldn't see anyone otherwise."

The appeal follows the first meeting of the council forum that will recommend whether or not to continue with the WRVS-led service.

Back in February, Newport council announced it was to axe the current service and replace it with a private meals provider to save £114,000. It was the first local authority in Wales to do so on cost grounds.

But after outrage from many of the elderly clients as well as WRVS volunteers and the general public, council bosses decided to think again.

Speaking on Thursday, Councillor John Richards, chairman of the adult and housing services scrutiny forum, said: "We will be writing to specific interested organisations to get their views, and if members of the public also want to submit their views to the forum, we will take account of those too."

Volunteers at the WRVS's meals on wheels base in Ringland are also appealing for Argus readers to get behind them.

Norma Frost, WRVS organiser in Newport, said: "I think it is a great idea. We want as many people as possible to tell the council what they think. The strength of feeling is there."

At the same time, council bosses have rejected claims that the review is just a political manoeuvre and its outcome a forgone conclusion.

Councillor Richards said: "This is an attempt to look at the situation properly. We will do that in an open and democratic way.

"It would be wrong to assume that the outcome of the review will be that a private company will be used."