First class experience of health and care services
THERE has been much criticism recently of the local ambulance service, the health service in Wales and the care service provided by Cardiff City Council.
I would like to redress the balance as my recent experience of all was first class.
I woke up at midnight with breathing difficulties.
My wife dialled 999 and, within about five minutes, both a rapid response team and an ambulance arrived.
I received immediate treatment at home before being transferred to the accident and emergency department at the University hospital of Wales.
I then spent just over three weeks in hospital where I received excellent care from all the doctors, nurses and support staff.
When I came home I then received an immediate six week care package from Cardiff City Council and, again, the assistance I received from all the carers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists etc was superb and has proved invaluable in helping me regain my independence.
I am highly appreciative of all the support I have received so very well done to all the agencies and people involved for doing such tremendous work.
Kenneth Williams Llandaff, Cardiff
Labour-Plaid lecture a cheek
WHEN I heard of the agreement between Plaid Cymru and Labour, I thought how refreshing, mature and pragmatic Welsh politics was becoming.
Away from the confrontational circus that is Westminster, politicians representing some 70% of
Welsh voters were committing to co-operation.
We must remember it is in this spirit that the majority of us live out our lives. Imagine my surprise on reading Paul Davies’ article as I have always thought of him as a decent man, unlike the present leadership of his party in London. He chooses to ignore the sensible cooperation between Plaid and Labour and instead belittles their attempt to achieve targets of value. This is so unlike his party in Westminster, where betrayal and lies are the order of the day.
For if we care to pass over the scandals of cash for questions and donations for peerages, we still have the disgrace of the broken promise of failing to match EC funding following Brexit and the current attempts to undermine the judiciary.
These especially should worry all right- thinking individuals. So how dare Paul Davies lecture two sincere men, Adam Price and Mark Drakeford, when he represents a party associated with dubious practice?
Sion Griffiths, Trawsgoed, Aberystwyth
People smuggling fuelled by policy
PEOPLE smuggling hitting England’s south coast: and the tragic consequences. In the 18th century, as local historians of Kent, Sussex, etc. will tell you, the very high import tax on brandy, lace, and countless other items led to a flourishing black market, the famous smugglers, with scenes of violence, murders, and other scandals attached.
That scandalous period in history has disappeared.
How? By abolishing the high duty on, and prohibition of, imported goods.
We may argue that what fuels the people-smuggling business is the very vicious policy of the UK Government towards those wishing to settle.
Unfortunately, we have had experiences of this policy, which have led to a profound questioning as to whether the insensitive Westminster regime has any intention of fulfilling its international pledge to offer aid to those who flee.
If we are proud of being in the rich world, then we ought to be able to prove it. Particularly as British policies in the past helped to impoverish other societies. But, quite apart from this, immigration policy is bizarre and inconsistent: the scandal of the Windrush generation being threatened with deportation?
Unthinkable – but a symptom of a deep-seated malaise. A totally unhealthy desire to identify fellow human beings as “foreigners”.
From an avowedly racist background in the inner city of Birmingham in the 1950s and 60s I have moved to a position where I regard that the rights of a human being reside entirely in the fact of being human.
Speaking empirically and scientifically, this is the only basis on which political decisions can meaningfully be made, without imposing oppression and injustice.
Creating a situation where people die because of an unwelcoming English coast is obviously an abuse of that. Something which the electorate might remember when the next shabby electoral boat comes in.
Joseph Biddulph Pontypridd
This undermines trust in the council
I was shocked to read the following quote from Cardiff Council in a recent piece on the Echo’s sister website WalesOnline entitled “Cardiff council is exploring options for finishing Eastern Bay Link road but won’t say what they are”.
According to the council, “It is in the public interest to allow the council to proceed with the additional required work without outside influence.”
To me that sentence means “leave us and the consultants we’ve employed alone. We don’t want to have to spend time explaining things to citizens and answering their questions.
“We’ll tell citizens what’s going to happen when we’ve already made up our minds in a ‘consultation’ paper.”
This is yet another example of a lack of transparency between the council and citizens of the city. If the council thinks that citizens of Cardiff can only be told things once a formed view from technical experts comes out for consultation, what does that say about its view of citizens?
Citizens are not nuisances to be locked out of processes, nor are they stupid. We are council tax payers, interested in the future of our
The small print: 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.
I am highly appreciative of all the support I have received, so very well done to all the agencies and people involved for doing such tremendous work
Kenneth Williams Llandaff
city, with legitimate concerns about the environment and inequality, just to mention two issues. Does Cardiff Council not realise that locking people out of processes leading to important decisions will undermine trust in the council and our elected representatives?
In addition, when it comes to transport, as with so many things, providing a technical solution doesn’t mean it will necessarily work. People need to be engaged in discussion about problems, concerns and options for the future. Cardiff Council is a co-operative council and was actually co-operative council of the year in 2018. Why do we see so little co-operation in practice?
Furtheriore, why is Cardiff Council:
looking at options for new roads and expecting the Welsh Government to finance them when the Welsh Government declared a moratorium on new road building in June 2021?
even considering building new roads when its own One Planet document makes a commitment to a carbon neutral city by 2030 and the risks to the city posed by climate change are so clear?
talking so much more about “finishing” the Eastern Bay Link road rather than investment in crossrail and other public transport?
Let’s hope the report from consultants Arcadis takes a proper, holistic view of how transport might be improved in south-east Cardiff. Tamsin Stirling
Cardiff Civic Society