A GROUP of protesters marched through Penparcau on Monday evening before a heated public meeting to discuss the future of Bodlondeb Care Home, write Antony Gedge and Caleb Spencer.

The march, which was organised by a cross-party group, including members of the GMB Union, UNISON, Ceredigion Labour Party, Ceredigion Liberal Democrats and Ceredigion People’s Assembly, started at Penparcau Butchers at 6pm.

Following the march, a public meeting saw a packed hall at Ysgol Llwyn yr Eos, with around 250 people in attendance.

The council was accused of putting current Bodlondeb residents under threat by trying to force them out of their home.

The daughter of one resident said: “If you put her somewhere else, you’re putting her in her grave.”

Former Aberystwyth councillor Hywel Jones, who is now a resident in Bodlondeb, attended the meeting and said he was pleased with the care he received at the home and did not want to leave the facility.

There was a hostile response to the council’s presentation which warned that new regulations on the size of rooms, the cost of upgrading the building and a drop in the number of people seeking residential care meant the home’s future was not viable.

Social services director Sue Darnbrook was jeered during the meeting after insisting that a high number of vacant places in residential homes meant there was “over-provision” of residential care.

Angry members of the public insisted that the failure to provide dementia nursing care in the north of the county had seen families let down and there were accusations that the authority had run down Bodlondeb.

Malcolm Richards said: “Not just this council, but the previous two councils have been hell bent on closing Bodlondeb."

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