Public meeting to try to save troubled Aberystwyth care home

The campaign group Ceredigion Against the Cuts is holding a public meeting on Monday (13 June) to discuss the future Bodlondeb residential home.
The Aberystwyth care home is under threat of closure, leaving the future of around 25 residents and 30 staff uncertain.

In a message sent to campaigners ahead of the meeting, Labour AM Joyce Watson pledges to lobby Ceredigion County Council over the issue. She writes:

I am concerned that like many other care homes in Wales, we are in a position where the future provision of services for some of the most vulnerable people in Ceredigion is under review.

I recently joined Aberystwyth Mayor Richard Boudier to voice my concern over the relocation of the day care centre in Aberystwyth, from its current well-used location in Mill Street to the Town Hall. This decision was taken without any real and meaningful consultation with the people who use the service and I therefore referred the case to the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales.

Bodlondeb has, according to Ceredigion County Council, been identified as in need of upgrading to meet Welsh Government standards. This is not new legislation and ample time and forward notice was given to all Welsh Local Authorities to allow them to produce a forward work programme underpinned by local policies. My hope is that this has been done and that any such plan will produce a clear and substantive package that takes account of local need and desire to retain individuals in a location that the people have expressed a wish to reside in.

Anyone who wishes their views to be taken on board must have equal opportunity so to do. Anything less will, in my view, negate the whole process.

I pledge my support to lobby the council in accordance with your wishes.

Finally, we all need to remember we will ourselves, if we are lucky, be older in due course and possibly in need of such provision ourselves.

Yours sincerely,
Joyce Watson AM/AC
In April, social services chiefs announced they were investigating options, including moving residents of Bodlondeb to Hafan y Waun home in Waunfawr, after surveys showed it would cost over £270,000 to carry out repairs and renovation to bring Bodlondeb up to standards set by Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales. Social services director Parry Davies said eight rooms in the home were currently unoccupied because they had been identified by CSSIW as failing to meet minimum care standards.
In a letter sent to residents, family members and staff, Mr Davies said the department wanted major input from everyone before a final decision was made.
The public meeting will take place at 6pm, St Anne’s Church Hall, Penparcau.