Madam,

I have found these last few years very depressing in relation to both care for the elderly and the education system in Ceredigion.

First there was the closure of the well-used day centre in Park Avenue, Aberystwyth, followed by the cutback of beds at Hafan y Waun and the closure of the day centre there. The uncertainty about the future of Bodlondeb has meant the loss of a care facility and much-needed respite beds, while the lack of nursing care beds for dementia in the county continues.

This is against a backdrop of money lost or wasted by the county council. Most people will have heard of the millions that have been given to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, but there are a number of other less publicised examples.

The outgoing county council has had to hand back £500,000 of regeneration money from the Welsh Government because it failed to allocate the money to a suitable project within the time limit. There were a number of candidates that could have benefitted.

In addition £80,000 has been lost from storm repair funding and the outgoing council could have claimed an additional £83,000 from the Welsh Government’s Emergency Financial Assistance/Recovery Scheme. There was also £67,000 which the council had hoped to be able to claim, but couldn’t after the Welsh Government decided that the works undertaken failed to meet the eligibility criteria.

And £15m was originally spent on the new council building at Canolfan Rheidol, but it didn’t stop there. The interest on loans to pay for this total around £300,000 a year. The council spent £39,000 on consultation and development of the town clock square and £18,000 on design and development for the new paddling pool in Aberystwyth. How much has it cost for consultation between the Hywel Dda University Health Board and the council on the tender document for Bodlondeb?

We are often told that there is no spare money in Wales. The cost of building the Welsh Government office was £20.2m, £8.4m more than the original estimate, but it employs fewer than 70 per cent of the expected staff. I also believe we lost out on funding from the Welsh Government for the elderly.

For over five years I have been putting a case forward for a special care home, like there is in Cardigan or Crymych, to be built in Aberystwyth, only to see it happening in Tregaron instead.

The issue of education is for another day.

I am too old to go round our schools and my knowledge about standards and how the staff feel is based on what I read in our local newspaper, but I just hope that in the future money is not lost or wasted as it has been up until now and that in future we can provide for the needs of the young and old alike.

Yours etc,

Mair Benjamin, Aberystwyth.

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