Hang their heads in shame

Feb 13 2009

I WAS outraged to hear that South Ayrshire Council intend to close Templeton House Care Home. Then to read the following week that indeed the Care Commission had not recommended this and yet again the council had lied and it was a question of money just sickened me.

Templeton House is a vital service to my family and I suspect many others. My elderly father regularly uses Templeton House for respite and without this service we would struggle as a family to keep caring for him at home. I find it difficult to comprehend when there is already a shortage of respite beds within South Ayrshire why the council would contemplate closing this facility.

I also wonder if any of the councillors who took this decision have ever taken the time to visit Templeton House and meet with the people who use this service or even meet the elderly ladies and gentlemen who live there and not to mention the dedicated staff who work there. I suspect they have not.

I wonder if the councillors of South Ayrshire Council realise that they are afforded their position by the voters and that those voters will largely consist of the elderly population and their families. I have visited Templeton House on many occasions whilst my father was in for one of his many respite visits and have found the care he has received to be outstanding.

He has developed friendships with carers, residents and other respite users and these are friendships that he will now be unable to maintain, yet again socially isolating him further.

My father like many others used to enjoy an active social life but gradually, one by one, the council has closed every facility - his lunch club, the Carrick Halls (which still lies empty) - yet the councillors continued to enjoy their subsidised meals at the County Buildings.

I suggest that if the council is in such a bad way then perhaps the councillors may consider taking a pay cut, instead of yet again cutting another vital service from our elderly community, after all this is a generation of men and women who have fought through a world war and in some cases two to ensure that we had a better life and this is how we repay them.

South Ayrshire Council should hang their heads in shame and I pray that the voting public think carefully as to how they use their vote in the next election and decline to vote for a council who quite clearly places money as more important than our elderly population as they have proved time and time again.

D Harvey

Croft Street

Tarbolton.