There will be no rethink of Lancashire County Council’s decision to start charging for a service that helps keep elderly and vulnerable residents safe in their own homes.

The authority’s cabinet approved the introduction of fees for its telecare facility last month, saying that it could no longer afford to be the only council in the north west to provide the emergency alarm and remote monitoring system for free.

The move was condemned by the opposition Labour group – and seven of the party’s county councillors, along with another from the Green Party, later made an official request for cabinet members to reconsider the matter.

But the attempt fell at the first hurdle when the council’s cross-party scrutiny management board.declined to refer the matter back to cabinet.

Labour claimed the move to charge had breached three County Hall principles by being based on insufficient information and not taking into account the county council’s duties regarding human rights, equality and diversity.

Labour leader County Cllr Azhar Ali told the board meeting the 46 percent of current telecare users who, a public consultation had indicated, would not continue with the service once they had to pay for it equated to 8,300 people “who’ll have a massive impact on ambulances, on GPs, hospitals and, ultimately, social care”.

He said the financial implications of the decision across the public sector would “come back to haunt us”, before also warning: “We’re going to have people losing their lives prematurely because of our cock-up.”

Under the new policy, the 11,000 Lancashire telecare users who receive no other social care package will, from the new year, have to pay £4 per week for the basic service which alerts a family member or friend to respond to an emergency call. For £5.50, a mobile responder would act in the event of an alarm, while for £9, a user can receive two wellbeing calls or one visit a week.

Labour’s deputy leader Lorraine Beavers said the authority had not done its “homework” by failing to carry out a health impact assessment, adding: “This service should not be rolled out to those who can pay and denied to those who can’t.”

But County Cllr Graham Gooch, adult service cabinet member, said the authority had received calls from plenty of people who were “so keen to have the service, that they wanted to give their bank details…then and there”.

He also stressed the existing free service was not “universal” but was dependent on whether an individual met eligible criteria under the Care Act.

Research showed the lack of access to subsidised telecare support for all who wanted it failed to maximise the potential to “reduce expenditure for the state”, County Cllr Gooch argued.

He noted that proof of a breach of human rights legislation would have required evidence of a “real and immediate threat to life”, which he said did not exist in this case.

The committee voted by six to four against asking the cabinet to reconsider its decision.