Madam,

On 27 June, the BBC reported that Merthyr Tydfil council had made an unusual but brave request to the Welsh Government.

Despite a ”six per cent hike” in council tax, redundancies and 20p on school meals, Merthyr admitted that it could not manage on the money allocated to it by WAG and were particularly worried by the effect on social services. They requested that WAG send in someone to help.

This leaves two alternatives: either the WAG expert shows everyone where they have been going wrong by producing a magic spending formula, or they are forced to admit that they are under-funding councils.

I say again, admitting that you aren’t coping is a very difficult and brave thing to do, yet something which social workers spend a lot of time doing is trying to persuade decent, proud people to accept help to stop a problem becoming a crisis becoming a disaster.

When closing this or cutting back that, Ceredigion County Council often refers to ‘making the hard choices’. Well here’s a choice for you councillors, carry on placing the vulnerable in this county at risk through lack of services or take a leaf out of Merthyr Tydfil’s (and your own social workers’) book and admit that you need help reconciling the money needed with the money available.

Yours etc, George Holloway, Rhos Hendre, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth.

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