Letters to the Editor

Elderly should not be abandoned

Lesley Capehorn is absolutely right to be worried about her 88-year-old mother, resident at The Lawns (Courier last week ‘Care homes for rich in private sector, warning’).

Her assertion that the less wealthy will lose out if the county owned care homes are sold is true. My father is 94 and a resident at Park View and I’m worried too. As councillor Kirton is quoted as saying in the same article: “The county council needs to be reminded that care homes belong to the people of Warwickshire. It seems to want to ditch its responsibility as soon as it can while the private sector is hanging about in the wings.”

Again absolutely correct; the council may protest that no decision will be made until after the consultation period but make no mistake about it this is exactly where council policy is heading. By setting up a very short consultation period; a flawed process which excludes members of the public unless they have a relative at a care home, they are looking for a quick kill and in a few weeks the die will be cast, the care homes will be scheduled for closure. Once they have gone we won’t get them back.

Readers should not be taken in by the companion Courier article ‘Extra Care’ homes for the elderly to be built by 2015’. ‘Extra Care’ homes are not replacements for the full facility residential care homes that the council wants to close, they have more in common with the sheltered independent accommodation that many of the care home residents lived in before they became too frail to cope. The cunningly titled ‘Extra Care’ model of providing homes for senior citizens has everything to do with transferring the financial burden for sheltered accommodation back to the national exchequer, with capital investment input from the private sector. All well and good, we may need more sheltered accommodation with enhanced support but there will always be those who, maybe at a greater age than formerly, will not be able to cope without full residential care.

In short Warwickshire’s expanding elderly population will need proper provision of ‘Extra Care’ homes and residential care homes with a proportion at a price the less wealthy can afford. The last thing the elderly need is to be caught up in a “who pays” ping-pong match between local and central government.

Soon on Armistice Day and later on Remembrance Sunday, county councillors will no doubt rightly stand in churches or at war memorials throughout Warwickshire to pay tribute to our heroic fallen from recent conflicts and two world wars. They will hear part of Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen, the words we know as The Ode of Remembrance: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.” And again rightly their lips will respond: ‘We will remember them’. Lesley Capehorn’s mum and my dad, in common with most of the population of Warwickshire’s care homes, are of that age of the Second World War, heroes; my dad followed through to Germany on D-Day. They did survive; age has wearied them. Now that they need our practical support, rather than pious remembrance. Can county councillors respond, ‘We will abandon them’? - Ian Meddoms, All Saints Road, Warwick.

Your money will make a difference

May we thank everyone who donated so generously to our recent collection at Sainsbury’s in Warwick which raised £550.70.

A big thank you, also, to the manager and staff at the store for allowing the collection and for making us so welcome.

How might this money be used? Here are some examples of what it costs to carry out our work around the developing world:

£20 could provide a family in Mozambique with the seeds and tools needed to grow their own food for a season.

£30 could buy a bike so a child in China could travel the long distances to school more easily.

£96 can provide 100 baby thermometers to check for fever – a symptom of several killer diseases.

£300 could pay for a single day’s mentoring for 10 foster care professionals in Bosnia.

£500 could buy a tent to act as a safe play area for children in an area hit by natural disaster or conflict.

There are always numerous demands on our funds and as a branch we aim to increase the amount we raise every year and are on target to do so again this year. - Ann Bailey, Honorary Secretary, Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth branch, Save The Children.

Fire service at breaking point

During the early morning of Tuesday October 5, mid- Warwickshire was virtually stripped of fire cover by only two medium sized incidents. The public need to realize how short the brigade is now, even before the county councillors voted to dispense with four fire crews.

The first call on October 5 was at 3.20am to a lorry fire on the M40. To all motorway calls, three fire crews are sent; at this location such calls empty Leamington fire station. This fire needed four crews, so a crew from Nuneaton was sent to standby at Leamington. Only one crew is not enough to cover the Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth area, but there are not enough crews overall in the county, to spare two.

The Nuneaton crew had just returned from another call in Leamington, when the factory fire occurred, and had to deal with the factory fire alone for about 15 minutes, before a second crew arrived.

Reinforcements were needed. At this time no fire crews were left in Warwick, Leamington, Kenilworth, Stratford, Southam, Wellesbourne, Fenny Compton, or Henley-in-Arden. Alcester were sent to cover Stratford. Who then covered Leamington, Warwick and Kenilwoth? Atherstone also attended, leaving their area short. Bidford, Studley and Brinklow also attended for assistance or relief purposes, (two of which are due for closure). Then an automatic fire alarm alerted the brigade to a shop fire in Leamington. Still awaiting results of a Freedom of Information request, I wonder who attended that?

What is alarming, is that this is not an isolated situation, but is happening frequently, even without heat-waves, floods, etc. At the council meeting when councillors voted to close stations (knowing the risks involved), we were told that previously closed fire stations at Tysoe and Kineton were not missed, but both would have proved invaluable on this and other occasions, and their loss leaves, for example, Sunrising Hill on the A422, outside the 20 minute attendance time set by the brigade. County councillors need to realise that their first consideration should be to the public, many of whom voted them in. - G.M.Franklin M.I.Fire E, Hinckley.

Run for local charity

British Blind Sport is a locally based charity and has been helping blind and partially sighted children and adults to enjoy the many benefits that sport and recreation can offer since 1975 and we remain dedicated to giving them the chance to run, swim, kick a ball and join in – in fact to be given the everyday opportunities their sighted friends enjoy.

Increasing demands on our activities and the lack of specialist sports provision for blind and partially sighted children in their everyday life, mean that it is absolutely vital that we raise extra funds to meet their particular need - This is a great challenge.

We annually raise funds to stage championships, league matches, and grassroots development days such as football, cricket, athletics, archery, tenpin, shooting and many more. Being able to deliver these means they will gain confidence, make friends and lead healthier more independent lives through simply taking part.

However, there is still a great deal for us to do, and as we unfortunately do not receive Government funding, donations are crucial, they are the lifeline that allows us to continue our important work and we need your support now more than ever to safeguard the future.

Now the interesting part! - We have four Gold Bond places available in the 2011 Virgin London Marathon, if you would like to take this opportunity of running for British Blind Sport, please contact Caroline Baxter on 01926 424247 or email on [email protected] and she will be happy to give you the details. There is an initial pledge of £300 which will be returned to you when sponsorship of over £1500 is raised. British Blind Sport will support you in your fundraising and training. Visit our website at www.british
blindsport.org.uk. - Caroline Baxter, Chief Executive, British Blind Sport, Leamington Spa.

Don’t help travellers

We are residents living close to the Beausale site that the ‘travellers’ have put themselves onto an unauthorised development on green belt land, which they should have got permission in the first place from Warwick District Council and did not.

This land is not suitable for living accommodation of any kind, and it is well known to locals that it floods not only in the winter but during severe rains throughout the year!

This is a country lane and therefore not suitable for heavy traffic and very unsuitable for the safety of children and elderly people. Therefore, we feel that no more should be done to help these travellers on this very unsuitable green belt site. - Name and address supplied.

Please help save my daughter’s home

I TOO am a member of the MS Society, as John Canning said (Courier letters October 8): “It is not us that wish to close any care homes down especially Helen Ley.

It is the ones in London, trustees and head office - they have no idea how these homes are run. If they had any family members who suffered this dreadful illness, only then would they truly understand the necessity of keeping Helen Ley open.

I truly hope they never have that worry. My daughter has been a resident at Helen Ley for 13 years. It is the only home she has known. Now staff and residents are her family.

She would never survive life outside Helen Ley. No matter what care she had she would just be confused and frightened. Many of the residents have given up their homes to be cared for at Helen Ley. They would be left with nowhere to call home and all their money gone.

The staff are trained specifically to care for these MS sufferers, they are loving caring and very dedicated. To close this home would cause so much stress and upset to all concerned with it.

So as Mr Canning said: “If there is anyone that can help us to keep Helen Ley safe from closure please come forward and help us, we are desperate.

These vulnerable sufferers do not deserve to be treated this way. How can those in London say they belong to the MS Society - when Helen Ley is an MS care centre and all the people there are MS sufferers - and they want it to close?

They should be very proud to have it, not close it. It has a fantastic reputation. So if there is someone out there that can help, please do. - Angela Twomey, Bury Road, Leamington Spa.