Parents of disabled children who use three threatened respite centres have requested a meeting with Dr Richard Shaw, Oxfordshire County Council's chief executive.

County councillors voted earlier this month to axe a £500,000 annual grant to Barnardo's as part of a £9m package of social services cuts.

The money is vital to the future of the Summerfield Resource Centre in Abingdon, Sycamore House in Banbury, and the Chilterns Centre in Henley, which cost £1.1m a year to run.

Earlier this month, at a meeting held by the parents' support group FORCe (Friends of Resource Centres), spokesman Colin Webster, whose son Daniel, eight, attends Summerfield, claimed that parents were not properly consulted about the closures, and could take legal action. Dr Shaw has been invited to meet parents to discuss the closures at a second meeting, at the Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre, off Abingdon Road, Oxford, at 7.30pm on Thursday.

Mr Webster said: "Parents are still fighting hard to save these centres. We would like as many people as possible to attend the meeting."

Labour councillors have urged the Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration to find the money from balances to keep the centres running.