Madam,

I read with interest the informative article by your reporter Caleb Spencer in last week’s Cambrian News. His article begs me to ask how the shocking statistics revealed by ‘End Child Poverty’ lead to the conclusion that four out of 10 children living in Penparcau are living in poverty.

If there is extensive poverty to such a degree, it would seem to me that throwing money at social activity organisations will not ease the problem in any way. Poverty is created by insufficient money to live an acceptable standard of life, the definition of which varies from country to country, as seen in some of the poorest areas as in, say, India compared to this country.

It would be of interest to many Penparcau residents to know just how the Welsh Government’s Communities First programme for tackling poverty, which was withdrawn from Penparcau in 2013, with funding throughout Wales of many hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money, eased any existing poverty. Yes, this taxpayers’ money is welcomed by voluntary bodies to possibly improve the social lives of residents, which is becoming more and more necessary for the elderly with people living longer and many living in isolation, but thought should be given to the vast amount of money granted throughout Wales by the Assembly that is being paid to so many employees administering these social once all-voluntary programmes in preference to direct financial assistance to the residents who are really living in day-to-day poverty. That is those who cannot afford to eat properly or heat their homes. This is verified by the uptake of the wonderful work carried out by Canon Andy Herrick of St Anne’s Church and his volunteers in providing the food bank and free meals, so appreciated as an actual act of tackling their poverty. Yes, the real definition of easing poverty.

I am not really convinced that as many as four in 10 children are living in poverty in Penparcau, drawn from the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation indicators which take into account income, employment health, education, housing, environment, access to services and community safety, and I doubt that many parents would want to agree with them and are possibly offended by them with such effort being made by themselves in a low-paid area to ensure the best for their children. How are these deprivation indicators measured? I have not found Ceredigion County Council lacking in their responsibility to Penparcau residents to deprivation standard for their services written of as indicators.

I do believe that there should be a clear definition as to any grant aid between social activities and the easing of poverty from taxpayers’ monies when applied for, eliminating poverty being the priority. We have so many wonderful unpaid volunteers working in Penparcau who have, and still are, providing so much for the young and old. I can think of 14 organisations at this time for which residents are so grateful.

Yours etc,Pat Bates,Maes-Maelor, Penparcau. Aberystwyth