Madam,

With reference to the on-going ‘extra-care housing’ saga in Ceredigion,

I read in the Cambrian News that the Aberystwyth 50+ Forum committee has raised a number of objections to the suitability of the proposed Plas Morolwg site near Aberystwyth, which have also been taken up by the majority of Aberystwyth town councillors.

Cllr Alun Williams, supporting the plan to develop the site as extra care housing said that: “The need for an appropriate modern facility to cater for the demands of the elderly and vulnerable people in the town is there.”

No-one can deny that fact and the key word in that statement is, for me, ‘appropriate’.

But town councillor Williams, who is also a county councillor, Cabinet member and who voted for the closure of Bodlondeb Residential Home, goes on to say: “This is all the land that is available.”

Surely, an inappropriate site cannot provide an appropriate facility and so we are left with the conclusion that ‘make do’ is sufficiently good enough for the elderly and vulnerable of Ceredigion.

The most unfortunate thing is that the situation now being faced is a direct result of a lack of strategic thinking on the part of the county council, cutting and closing services with seemingly little regard for those who rely on them.

Although, if the county council pleads lack of finances, they would do well to think about selling the film rights to what must be west Wales’ longest-running publicly-funded farce: ‘Carry On Cylch Caron’.

Twelve years since its inception and several years after purchasing the site, the county council has had to ask the developers to go back to the drawing board, literally, because someone has ‘suddenly’ realised that the land slopes steeply and couldn’t accommodate the existing plans.

So now the county council is in the position of having to choose whether to play ‘swapsies’ and see if the previous owner will exchange land at the site that the county council wishes they hadn’t bought, for land they now wish they had.

It would be very difficult to make all of this up.

Yours etc,

George Holloway, Rhoshendre, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth.

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