Madam,

I am writing in response to Dai Thomas’s letter Day Centres are vital to prevent loneliness and provide respite.

Day Centres are not the only thing on the closure list currently. They went first, but now council-run care homes are being closed and sold off to the private sector.

Older people are being encouraged to stay in their own homes even though the amount of care provided is often not enough and many are left isolated and lonely, no longer able to get out and about and lead the kinds of lives they once led.

Day Centres helped alleviate this and care homes like Bodlondeb provided a trusted alternative to living at home when the time came. But not any more.

One answer to this is to build Extra Care Homes. These are a form of sheltered accommodation where people live in their own flats but with meals provided, if required, in a communal dining room.

On-site carers are available to help with personal care when necessary. Other communal facilities such as sitting rooms, games rooms, libraries and gardens provide opportunities for activities and socialising.

A day centre can also be provided to help those who are still living at home access care and other services and give them the opportunity to socialise.

Unfortunately, there is only one Extra Care Home in Ceredigion and that is in Cardigan. Another is going to be built in Tregaron but no such facility exists in Aberystwyth, the largest concentration of population in the county.

Why not? Did the Aberystwyth councillors take their eye off the ball when the Ceredigion Champion for Older People, the county councillor for Tregaron, chose to champion the needs of her local community above the needs of those elsewhere?

The county council cannot plead that it does not have the money currently to invest in an Aberystwyth project. The cost of providing an Extra Care Home is divided between the Welsh Assembly, the local authority and a housing association which, when built, will manage and run the home.

Ceredigion County Council was paid well over £3m by the developers for the Mill Street car park and the old day centre, together with a further £1.2m to refurbish the basement of the old Town Hall, much of which was not spent there. And then there is the money from the sale of the council-run care homes.

If you are struggling to think of a question to ask when prospective candidates for the county council elections in May canvass you for their votes, please ask what they plan to do about the situation in relation to the care of older people in the area and why Aberystwyth does not have an Extra-Care Home when less populated areas elsewhere in the county do.

Yours etc,

Gwenda Williams, Rhydyfelin, Aberystwyth.

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