Madam,

Why was Bodlondeb residential care home sold for peanuts?

Surely, with so many in Ceredigion needing hospice, palliative, respite, and residential care, Bodlondeb with its fit-for-purpose building must be resurrected and play a necessary service for so many, who must now and in the future be supported in the public sector.

How can private sector support?

I have been informed that carers in the private sector do not have in the contract sick pay, holiday pay, pension scheme. Staff at Bodlondeb did. Isn’t this the main reason Ceredigion County Council closed the home, so they no longer have to pay employees?

In the consultation document for 2016/17 the annual cost of caring for 11 residents was £506,000. How much would it have cost if it was full with 50 residents?

In 1969 I made allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II as a policeman in Dyfed-Powys Police to protect life. Surely councillors swear under oath to protect life.

I still find it very difficult to forgive eight county councillors on the Cabinet of the council who closed Bodlondeb, even though thousands in 1999, 2014 and 2017 signed petitions saying they did not want them to close our home.

To Ben Lake, Elen Jones and Ellen ap Gwynn, I say show us fight, turn over every stone, to make Bodlondeb the home in the catchment area in Aberystwyth, even though it has been empty since 31 March last year.

For those of us who say ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’, we say to those in Plaid Cymru ‘Cofiwch Bodlondeb’. I feel, as a member of Plaid Cymru, that in Ceredigion members who represent us on the Cabinet, our principle purpose should be to protect everybody who should have support within social services.

We should be building bridges not breaking them down.

Yours etc, Dai Thomas, ‘Friend of Bodlondeb’, Llwyn Yr Eos, Penparcau, Aberystwyth.

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page