Madam,

I am sure I speak for many people when I say I am disgusted by the decision taken by Ceredigion County Council Cabinet to close Bodlondeb residential care home in Penparcau, Aberystwyth.

In spite of all the excellent representations made to Cabinet by Steve Davies, Lyndon Lloyd, Hag Harris, Alan Lloyd Jones, Ceredig Davies, Lloyd Edwards, Elizabeth Evans and John Roberts, and the tireless campaigning by Ceredigion People’s Assembly and Save Bodlondeb 2017, Cabinet still saw fit to ride roughshod over the will of the people.

Sitting in a packed public gallery alongside members of the campaign to save Bodlondeb, we were subjected to drawn out tales of ‘heavy hearts’ and ‘hours of soul searching’ and that old Tory chestnut, ‘there is no magic money tree’. It was evident that the decision to close Bodlondeb was made long before the meeting of the scrutiny committee and, indeed, some might argue before it even went out to consultation.

It is my understanding that the decision made by Cabinet has been called in by the scrutiny committee for further scrutiny and the desired outcome is that it will be put to the full council before being referred back to Cabinet.

I would just like to take this opportunity to prevail upon members of the Cabinet to make the right decision and to remind them that they have a duty of care to the elderly citizens of Ceredigion and a statutory obligation to provide residential care within the county.

Furthermore I would also like to remind them that they are our elected representatives and as such that their duty is to represent us, their electors, not their own self-interest. They may wish to consider how they came to hold the positions that they do now and how they might expect to be still holding those positions after the next local elections.

There is wide condemnation of the proposal to close Bodlondeb and I don’t think the people of Ceredigion will forget if Cabinet moves to close Bodlondeb come voting time.

Yours etc,

Simon Betts (Ceredigion People’s Assembly), Plas Helyg, Penparcau, Aberystwyth.

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