Campaign for Swansea care home Earlsmoor hits the streets

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to keep the doors of a Swansea care facility open are taking their fight to the streets.

Union chiefs will be joining forces with people opposed to the closure of Earlsmoor and taking their fight to the city centre tomorrow. So far 2,000 people have put their names to the petition calling to keep the respite service for elderly in Brynmill.

Doubt has been cast over the future of the facility following a decision by bosses at Swansea Council to shake-up care facilities city-wide.

Plans were first put forward in June after a study suggested the traditional one-size-fits-all approach should make way for a more flexible service.

A decision on the future of Earlsmoor is expected in the new year.

The situation has led Unison to challenge the local authority to debate its plans as to when the facility's doors will be shut for good. But the trade union says the council has failed to respond.

Unison's Glyn Jones said: "We have made a very good start in only a few weeks with our petition and this is the first time we have set up a public stall.

"On the evidence so far we expect huge support. Swansea Council's Christmas present to the city's older people is to cut their respite services.

"It also seems to think this issue will be forgotten over Christmas — we will make sure that it will not."

He added: "If the council was confident of its arguments then it would publicly debate the issue.

"Its current plans also include moving the respite-service from the current seafront location to a much smaller facility in the middle of a housing estate.

"We think the public can judge for themselves who is in the right."

Cabinet member for social services Nick Tregoning added: "The people of Swansea deserve better than simplistic sound bites from a union which seems to think people who need residential respite care should be consigned to an institution where facilities are out of date.

"Unison's Christmas present to the older people of Swansea is a future where they have no say over the services they receive.

"The truth is consultation and proper discussions with all interested groups, individuals and organisations is active and ongoing."

Campaigners will be petitioning between 1pm and 4pm tomorrow at the junction of Union Street and Oxford Street.

elizabeth.perkins@swwmedia.co.uk

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