Madam,

Ceredigion county councillors do not appear to be well served by their officers.

At the last Healthier Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting, where the possible closure of Bodlondeb was discussed, the information provided by the officers fell far short of what was required.

One glaring red herring was the announcement that Aberystwyth was to have an extra-care home on the site of Plas Morolwg. As many people have already said since, this will not be up and running for many years and will not be a complete substitute for a residential care home. Tthere will still be a demand from those who have been living independently in their own homes but cannot cope any longer. A place in an extra-care home is unlikely to be suitable for them at this stage. In addition, several more extra-care homes will be needed to meet the demand.

There was a lack of relevant information in relation to the cost of renovating, upgrading and replacing Bodlondeb. A figure of £10m was plucked from the air. Why had no-one costed a range of options to allow the councillors to consider alternatives for the short, medium and longer-term?

An example of uncorrected mis-information was the frequently repeated line about the high number of vacancies in residential homes in the county. At no time was this broken down to show that the vacancies are in council-run homes and in particular in Bodlondeb, which has not been taking new residents since June. The private residential homes in the county, according to the latest available information, are full. When all the council-run residential care homes in the county are closed, where will people needing residential care go? It is not only the councillors who are being short-changed. It is also the older people of Ceredigion who will not have access in the future to the kind of services they will need.

Yours etc,

Gwenda Williams Rhydyfelin, Aberystwyth.

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