Madam,

On Sunday, 31 March, I will at 2pm be at the entrance of the old Bodlondeb residential care home in Penparcau for one hour, in silence, in memory of past residents of the home.

I will say a prayer for them and those who have now moved reluctantly during the winter of 2017/18. Unfortunately some have passed away amongst strangers.

At the open public meeting, we assembled in a full hall at Llwyn yr Eos School in Penparcau. Who there can forget former mayor, Cllr Hywel Jones, who was a resident at Bodlondeb, representing other residents at the home, saying: “I do not want to leave Bodlondeb. I am very happy there.” The response of all of us was “Do not close Bodlondeb”. How many from Penparcau have spent the last years of their lives at other homes too far away, when they could and should have been in Bodlondeb?

During the consultation, before councillors went for their holidays in August, I requested consultation documents for each of the 3,000 homes in Penparcau, so residents could fill them in and return them by September with their views.

I was given 200. I can see and hear all the eight Cabinet members, not one representing Penparcau, who completely ignored the views of thousands in the petition. I will always remember county councillor Lyndon Lloyd, who had led social services, speaking from the floor and he said: “You must provide a home in Aberystwyth.”

Do those eight county councillors on the Cabinet not know that Penparcau has more residents, whose only income is a state pension or benefits, than anywhere else in Ceredigion? They cannot afford to pay for taxi journeys or the railway to Llandovery, Cardigan, Welshpool, Brecon etc to visit family and friends. With no buses at the weekend, how can they visit?

Too many now visit the Jubilee Food Bank at St Anne’s Church in Penparcau on Saturday morning to put food on their tables. It’s shameful.

I will say again to Westminster, the Welsh Assembly, Ceredigion County Council, remember Bodlondeb.

Yours etc, Dai Thomas, Llwyn-yr-Eos, Penparcau, Aberystwyth.

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