Elderly care services across the district could be thrown into turmoil if Bradford Council doesn't solve a major funding headache.

That was the stark message delivered by owners of independent residential and nursing homes at a crunch meeting with social services chiefs.

Social services director Liam Hughes and Councillor Kris Hopkins, chairman of the Social Services Committee, were told a decade of under-funding had left the sector on the brink of 'meltdown'.

Yorkshire Secretary for the Registered Nursing Home Association Andrew Makin said: "We have been stretched to breaking point and we're just not able to provide the level of care we want to anymore.

"People are suffering today because we can't get the quality or numbers of staff that we need on the current fee level - our backs are to the wall."

Mr Makin, who was backed by many home owners at the meeting, said money which had been allocated for elderly care services had too often been diverted by the Council to other areas.

And he warned there would be a rash of closures if current funding levels, which see independent nursing homes receiving £330 per patient per week, continue. Council run facilities get £370.

Coun Hopkins (Con, Worth Valley) said: "Everybody recognises the dire circumstances the independent sector is in, the problem we've got is that Bradford Council is also in dire financial circumstances.

"The Council has got a debt which it is carrying forward from the last group and it has already had to make cuts to services to meet present commitments.

"I can assure you we want to help you and if we can find the money you're going to get some, but how much, when it comes and in what package I don't know. We have some massive decisions to make."

That answer failed to appease some of those gathered at the Business & Innovation Centre who dismissed talk of budget constraints as 'red herrings'.

One home owner won loud applause when she said: "You're paying us less all the time and if it continues you're not just going to lose the poor homes but the good ones too.

"I believe I contribute to the quality care service in Bradford and yet I work 60 hours a week for what works out at around £1.50 an hour - we can't go on like this."

Mr Makin, who runs Norwood House in Keighley, said he and another 19 owners were ready to unilaterally raise their fees from April 1 if they had to.

He said: "All we're asking for is the basic minimum we need to meet our costs which would represent a £15 per patient per week rise. It's not negotiable, it's simply the least we need to carry on."