Peculiar statement (From Western Telegraph)

Peculiar statement

1:20pm Friday 24th August 2012 in Letters

RE: PLANS to site a civic amenity site by Brooklands.

IT IS with interest that we listened to the statement made by Pembrokeshire County Council, BBC Wales News, Friday, July 27th, that they are “fully aware of concerns and are confident an application will have no adverse impact on residents”.

We would like to ask, since when has the expertise of planning consultants and council officers and councillors of Pembrokeshire County Council extended to matters of Alzheimer’s and dementia? Given that whilst the civic amenity site has been in planning, not one representative from PCC has visited our relatives at Brooklands this would appear to be a rather peculiar statement.

We view this statement with trepidation, given the fact that in 2011, Keith Towler, Wales’ children’s commissioner, said the following of PCC: “It is hard to comprehend that an authority managed to fail on so many levels and had clearly lost sight of what was important – the safety of children and young people in its care.”

Furthermore, this is a local authority to whom ministers have recently sent in the Pembrokeshire ministerial board after issuing the council with its final warning for its failings to protect a number of children. In relation to this matter the the Welsh government has said it ‘has little confidence in certain senior officers’.

It would appear that the local authority is now en route to make further failings against other members of our most vulnerable groups in society, the elderly with Alzheimer’s and dementia, who cannot speak for themselves.

SHEILA JOHN Brooklands’ Relatives Support Group