Care centre for adults with learning difficulties and dementia to be closed by council

Bruce Sinclair, Local Democracy Reporter

Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage daycare centre could close as soon as November if a recommendation before senior councillors on September 9 is backed.

The county council is currently changing care provision for older adults and those with learning disabilities, and fears have been raised recently that Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage daycare centre could be closed down.

The report recommends that the council “close the Anchorage Day Centre with effect from November 1, 2024″ along with, as part of wider changes in the service, establishing social enterprise models in Crymych’s Bro Preseli and Narberth’s Lee Davies Centre with effect from April 1, 2025.

A petition calling for the council to keep the centre open was presented in a July meeting.

Speaking at that meeting, petition creator Peter Welsh was joined by many users of the service, and launched into an impassioned plea.

“They are a family, a happy group of individuals that enjoy being together in safety at their home, the Anchorage.

“They are effectively voiceless, we will be their voice.

“It’s an injustice; inexcusable targeting of the vulnerable. Please don’t use these vulnerable individuals as pawns for a money-saving gain,” said Peter Welsh.

Outcome

The Anchorage Day Care Centre in Pembroke Dock has been a “safe and happy place” for adults with learning difficulties and additional needs for decades.

In more recent years it has expanded to support elderly dementia sufferers.

On Monday, council members will have three options: to maintain the status quo, the option recommended by the report, or to close the Anchorage with a social enterprise centre in Bro Preseli and end the service level agreement with the Lee Davies Centre on March 31, 2025.

In July, Peter Welsh concluded his plea to thunderous applause from the gallery: “We may lose this battle today, but I hope not; they need your support.

“For those in the gallery, today it is their day, their lives; yet it could be today that is also your day. Today we appeal to you on their behalf, today you have an opportunity to right a wrong.”

At that meeting, Chief Executive Will Bramble said the pressures on social services in the county were so high that the 12.5 per cent council tax increase did not even meet the demands of that department alone, adding: “The only reason we were able to have a balanced budget was by cutting services in order to have a balanced budget.”