Plea for compassion and common sense
LIKE our Health Minister Vaughan Gething and together with more than 22,000, we are residents of Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, who at present are banned from entering Cardiff unless we are working there or for a number of other extenuating circumstances. Ironically, under the previous ridiculous five-mile restrictions we were allowed to travel lawfully to Cardiff.
Is it any wonder that with people from places bordering Cardiff, such as Penarth, Caerphilly etc, not allowed to go Christmas shopping in
Cardiff that the city centre is grinding to a halt? Obviously the knockon effect will be the loss of employment and shops and restaurants closing down. Recent information shows that Cardiff city centre has the second-worst footfall recovery in the UK outside London.
Last week First Minister Mark Drakeford, answering a question by Andrea Byrne on ITV Wales, inferred that if we use our common sense, it’s all right to enter Cardiff if it was a shorter distance than if we travelled to alternative supermarkets which were further away.
Conversely, a close friend of mine, aged 70, who lives alone in Cardiff, has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and isn’t allowed to travel three miles to play golf at his course in Penarth and meet his friends and get his much-needed exercise.
Can I through your newspaper ask the First Minister to show some much-needed common sense, so instead of religiously confining it strictly to the border allow, for example, a compromise such as a fivemile limit on all sides of the border, which will make a huge amount of
difference to persons’ lives.
If you look at the empty Cardiff buses travelling back and forth to Penarth and other areas bordering Cardiff, is it any wonder that Cardiff Bus is in the process of making well over 100 of their drivers redundant, another knock-on effect of this illthought-out decision by the Welsh Government.
A huge percentage of elderly residents rely on the freedom of travelling by bus to shop in Cardiff, so come on, First Minister, use some compassion and common sense and relax the travelling restrictions so we can enjoy our wonderful Capital city.
Paul Fenton
Penarth
Letters will not be included unless you include your name, full postal address and daytime telephone number (we prefer to use names of letter writers but you can ask for your name not to be published if you have a good reason). The Editor reserves the right to edit all letters.